Across the Red Flag Bearing Sky
by Feeshies
Summary: Celeste is a wasteland doctor who seeks revenge and answers from the man who shot her. Livius is a Legionary recruit who was separated from the rest of his troop. Together they venture across the barren wasteland of the Mojave desert in the hopes of helping each other find what they're searching for.
1. Chapter 1

Story was written, or actually beaten out of me, after a 7 month writer's block. A period where notebooks were destroyed, Microsoft Word was uninstalled, and I tried to force myself to stop writing. Hopefully this can get me back into it.

Based on my Fallout NV gameplay with a Legion companion I made.

* * *

I woke up and the first thing I felt was pain. A sharp, hot pain that burned in my forehead and branched out throughout my body. My head was throbbing, my vision was blurred and spinning. The blurry vision didn't bother me too much since I always had piss poor eyesight, but everything else was unlike anything I had ever felt before. I rolled over onto my side on the dirty cot I was laying on and then it hit me; my dirty cot back home didn't smell like sour milk like this one did.

My eyes snapped open and I bolted up into a sitting position, but the sudden rush of blood from my head made me feel woozy and I fell back down again. My breathing was heavy and cold sweat dripped from my hairline and into my eyes, making them sting.

_Where the hell am I?_

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to rack my brain with what happened the night before, which only made my killer headache intensify.

_Let's see…I was delivering a package of chems across the Mojave and…oh shit. The NCR arrested me and now I'm in one of their prisons. Shit, shit, shit._

"You're awake. How 'bout that?"

The voice and the presence of someone else in the room startled me so much I nearly fell off the cot. But the blurry man sitting on a stool across from me managed to reach out and steady me.

"Whoa now, take it easy." He laid me back down against the cot and my eyes finally adjusted to the light. He was bald with a grey moustache and judging by his clothing, it was apparent he was not an NCR prison guard. Also the room I was in looked more like a clinic than a prison cell, so it was safe to toss that theory out the window.

"Where…how…?" My voice cracked as the words stumbled from my mouth and even forming them felt like an machete was being shoved into my brain.

The man shook his head. "Let's start simple before I answer any of the questions you probably have. How 'bout we start with your name?"

I sighed a bit. "Celeste."

The man scribbled my name down on a clipboard and I began freaking out again. _Yep, he's going to turn me in._

"Hm, not the name I would have chosen for you. But if that's your name, that's your name. I'm Doc Mitchell."

"Well I'm not particularly fond of it either." I reached up to wipe the sweat that was gathering on my forehead, but something felt off. There was something rough and warm and almost squishy beneath my bangs.

I guess Doc Mitchell saw my look of confusion and fear because he sighed and shook his head.

"I take it you have some questions, but first I need to make sure you don't have any serious trauma."

I lifted my blonde bangs up. "What's on my head?"

"First, what do you do for a living?"

"I'm a doctor, chemist to be specific. What's on my head?"

"Now, I want you to point to your left knee with your right hand."

I complied. "What's on my head?"

"Do it the other way now."

I pointed to my right knee. "What's on my head?"

Doc Mitchell frowned. "Alright, alright, hold your horses miss. Long story short: you were shot in the head."

My jaw dropped. It was all starting to piece together now, although very loosely. I was delivering a package of chems I developed, then I was tied up and shot in the head. Unfortunately, I didn't remember anything more than that.

"I managed to fix you up, stopped your brains from spilling out." Doc Mitchell crossed his arms, seeming pleased with himself. "You were buried nearby and Victor dug you up, brought you to me."

I kept poking at the scar, even though it hurt like a bitch. "Wait, where am I? And who's Victor?"

"Oh, my apologies. Welcome to Goodsprings. Victor is a robot who lives here."

_But of course._

I traced my finger across the smaller rows of stitches that branched out from the main scar. "So, do you know anything about who shot me?"

Doc Mitchell shook his head. "For that you're going to have to talk to Victor. Let's see, do you think you can stand?"

With a good deal of effort and Doc Mitchell for support, I managed to sit up completely. I still felt lightheaded, but it certainly wasn't as bad as before. I took a few deep breaths and pressed my feet against the creaky floorboards. My legs shook like a newborn animal's and Doc Mitchell held his arms out in case I fell.

I kept my balance with my arms and nodded. "Yeah, I think I can."

"Oh, I almost forgot." He reached into his pocket and handed me a pair of eyeglasses. "I believe these are yours."

I nearly squealed when I saw them and hastily shoved them onto my face, but my smile deflated when I saw a huge crack sprawled across the glass like a cobweb.

"They're broken."

Doc Mitchell shrugged. "For being on your head when you were using it to catch bullets, I say they're in pretty good condition."

I frowned and pushed them up further on my nose. This was going to bother me all day.

"Now that you can see properly, do you think you can walk over there?" He pointed to the far side of the room, but it might as well have been the other side of the world.

I bit my lip and nodded, smoothing out my scruffy blonde hair. With tiny steps I slowly inched my way forward. My vision swam and I began to feel lightheaded again, but somehow I was able to stay on my feet. After a while the baby steps evolved into normal sized steps and I found myself on the other side of the room. I wondered if this is what an infant felt like after taking their first steps, but I would like to say that walking across the room after getting shot in the head is far more impressive than some baby walking.

"Looking good." Doc Mitchell walked over (just had to upstage me). "How do you feel overall?"

I stretched my arms. "Like I'm going to puke, but otherwise I feel great."

He chuckled. "Well now you're able to walk to the bathroom if the urge hits you."

I managed to laugh back and tried walking around the room more. "I think I made a pretty good recovery, though." I tried spinning around, only to get dizzy and stumble a bit.

Doc Mitchell nodded. "Your stuff is over there." He gestured to a pile by the door. "There are still bloodstains on your clothes, but I tried to wash most of it off."

"Oh, thanks." I moved over to the pile and grabbed the green cargo pants that were folded on the bottom, causing everything else to topple over.

Doc Mitchell cringed. "Yeah, I was going to ask about that. Do you normally travel with a grenade launcher?"

I yanked the pants on and pulled my head through my white (and now red-ish) tank top. "You never know when it will come in handy." I got down on my knees and began placing the chemical grenades into my tote bag.

He gave me a skeptical look. "You don't think it's overkill?"

I clipped my pistol to my belt and slid my spiked knuckles on. "Hey, it's dangerous in the Mojave. You have to be prepared for anything." I shoved my feet into my boots and I clipped the grenade launcher to my bag before swinging it over my shoulder.

Doc Mitchell sighed. "Whatever suits you, I guess. Just don't fire that thing around here."

I patted my bag. "Well they're chemical and biological grenades, so I only use them for special occasions." I tried to give a warm smile, but Doc Mitchell just paled.

"Don't make me regret fishing that bullet out of your skull."

I moved towards the door and gave a dismissive wave. "You have nothing to worry about, Doc. Thanks for everything."

* * *

Despite making a pretty impressive recovery after catching bullets with my skull, nothing prepared me for the blinding invasion of light that shot through me when I opened the door. I shielded my eyes and I wanted to crawl back to that old, musty cot and never open my eyes again. I took a deep breath of that dust-filled Goodsprings air and trudged onwards, the soles of my boots sliding on the loose dirt and rocks that lead to the main part of the town.

Technically Goodsprings would be considered a small town, but I haven't seen so much civilization in one place since I moved from the east. There were a few houses next to little fields surrounded by barbed wire. The fields usually contained bighorners or a few plants that was supposed to pass as a crop. The plants looked as dry and thirsty as the barren earth and I suddenly became aware of my own thirst.

Next to a dusty general store was a saloon, its broken neon sign struggling to light up against the dust in the air. I licked my cracked lips and even though I know water should have been my number one choice, my tongue itched for something harder like whiskey or scotch.

There came a sound that almost sounded like a wheel. I wiped the dust off of my glasses and looked up. Bumping across what remained of the road that cut through the town was a securitron, much like the ones I saw in postcards for New Vegas. Still I wonder what kind of marketing idea that was.

_"Come to New Vegas! We have grumpy killer robots!"_

Even though I only saw the securitron's back, I was sure that was the robot Doc Mitchell was talking about. What was his name again? Vincent? Vash? I'll find out eventually.

I looked back at the saloon, then back at the robot and sighed. My thirst would have to wait.

I ran after the robot, which was probably not a good idea since it took me a great deal of time just to walk across the room, but hey. In hindsight, it's easy to pick apart things and declare what's a bad idea or not.

My boots skidded against the road as I tried to slow myself down and fortunately I managed to do that before I slammed into the securitron.

"Well howdy there, pardner!" Came a cheery voice and the box-like "head" of the securitron turned around. Unlike the photos of securitrons I saw before which usually had the faces of fat faced, angry looking pre-war policemen on their screens, this one had the portrait of a cowboy with a cigarette in his mouth.

_Damn I wish I had a cigarette right now._ "So I take it you're the securitron who dug me up?"

"Guilty as charged, pardner." The securitron made a strange movement with their arms which I guess was supposed to be the action of tipping a hat. "Name's Victor."

"Yes, yes, Victor." Well I got the first letter right. "Listen, I wanted to know if you knew anything about who shot me." I brushed my bangs over my forehead, to make sure the scar was still hidden.

"Hm…can't say I got a good look at them, but I hear they stuck around town for a bit."

This was getting me nowhere. "Do you at least know why they shot me? Did you overhear anything?"

"Sorry pardner, but I didn't find you until you were belly up in the ground."

I sighed. I was going to have to ask around more after all.

"Well, thanks for everything, Victor."

"Don't mention it, pardner. Glad to see you're still kickin'."

I nodded and walked away, making my way back to the saloon. Surely someone there can give me the information I needed. Plus, I needed a drink.

The inside of the saloon was only slightly cooler than the air outside, but at least it wasn't as bright. The floorboards squeaked under my feet as I walked through the saloon. The place was nearly empty, although I suppose that shouldn't surprise me too much since this town probably had a population of ten. A few people stood crowded around a pool table, but I decided not to bother them. I would probably have better luck with someone who worked here anyway.

The room with the pool table lead into the main part of the bar. Of course the bar was also completely empty, except for a man and a woman in the middle of a rather heated argument. I sat down in one of the booths, trying to find a convenient place to cut in.

"…but I'm done playing nice." The man pointed his finger at her. "If you don't hand Ringo over, tonight I'm getting my gang and we'll burn this town to the ground."

Judging by his clothing and overall charming attitude, I could tell he was a Powder Ganger. Occasionally I would have a few come into my clinic and I found that with them, like with all gangs, it was best to just do what they said. However, the woman didn't seem too phased.

"We'll keep that in mind. Now buy something or get out." She crossed her arms. This woman was an unmovable force against him.

The Powder Ganger stormed out and the woman just shook her head, stepping behind the bar.

"Um," I raised my hand.

"Oh yes, sorry about that." She began rearranging the bottles of liquor behind her. "So I hear you're the one who was shot nearby."

"That's me." I looked in the direction of where the Powder Ganger left. "What was that?"

"Oh, that." She shook her head and got a glass out. "Don't worry about that. I'm Trudy, can I get you something to drink?"

"Maybe later, but I have a few questions. Regarding whoever shot me."

"Oh, of course." Trudy put the glass away. "Well the leader was some city boy in a checkered coat, typical Vegas type. He had some Khans with him, possibly hired guns. They came here, tried to skimp out on paying for their drinks."

I rubbed my scar under my bangs. "Hm…do you know where they went?"

"The leader said something about the Strip, but I'm not too sure." She frowned. "You're not seriously considering chasing after them, are you?"

I shrugged. "Well obviously I have some questions for them. I don't like going down easily."

Trudy sighed. "Typical."

"So, what was that argument about?" I looked back over to the door. "You get Powder Gangers often?"

Trudy leaned against the bar. "Some fellow named Ringo came into town a while ago. He was freaking out about something so we gave him a place to stay. Little did we know that the Powder Gangers were after him." She sighed. "We've been getting threats like that from them for days now. Truthfully I don't think they're going to do it. A little town like this is hardly worth it."

I frowned. "Why don't you just turn Ringo in?"

"Listen here, miss." She narrowed her eyes at me. "I don't know what it's like wherever you're from, but here we don't just throw people at the mercy of gangs. Goodsprings should be a safe place."

"Alright, alright." I held my hands up. "So, where's Ringo now?"

"I'm not letting you kill him."

"I promise I won't. I'm not planning on sticking around for much longer anyways."

Trudy still looked a bit skeptical, but she seemed to believe me to a certain extent. "He's hiding out in the gas station."

I looked over my shoulder to peer out of the dirt window, but I couldn't see anything. Really I couldn't bother to care about Ringo or this Powder Ganger incident; I had enough problems to work through. Still, can't imagine that could be a great hiding place, but then a sudden thought hit me.

Maybe one of the people who shot me was still hiding out in town, or maybe someone who knew them better.

I thanked Trudy for the information and hopped off of the stool. Okay, I was making a bit of progress. I at least had an idea of who I was looking for, but I still didn't know why they would try to kill me. What would some Vegas hot shot want with a scientist trying to deliver a simple package of chems? Unless he was the most hardcore anti drug activist ever.

The saying "Don't shoot the messenger" now holds a greater meaning for me.

I wandered around Goodsprings for a bit longer. A few bighorners gave me some rather unpleasant looks so I hurried up my walking. In one of the far corners of the town, I saw a worn down, well, even more worn down building. The red paint was chipped and it looked like no one had stepped foot in it in a long time.

"A schoolhouse?" I frowned and walked over to it. Seemed like an ideal hiding place. Plus I didn't feel like dealing with that Ringo bastard at the moment.

I stepped carefully over the chain-link fence which laid collapsed around the perimeter of the building. The door was barely hanging on its rusted hinges and although I wanted to be a badass and kick it down, I found it in me to open the door like a normal human being.

The sunlight streaming through the broken window and roof was the only source of light in the school. The ground was covered with the corpses of bright green mantises, their innards scooped out and their exoskeletons tossed to the side.

On the far side of the room, I saw a sort of barrier formed out of desks. My fingers ghosted over my pistol.

"Hello?" I called out.

I saw a figure stand up from behind the desks, and although it was just a silhouette I could tell they were aiming a gun at me. Not this shit again. I unclipped my pistol and tried to aim for the figure.

"That's as far as you go." His words were slightly muffled as if his mouth was covered. "Now leave."

"You people are really bad at shooting me." I crushed a mantis shell with my boot.

The figure still stood there, but not once did they fire the gun. I sighed and walked over to the desk blockade. When he still didn't shoot, I picked up one of the desks and threw it to the side.

The young man standing behind the desks had his face covered by a black bandana and a helmet so I couldn't see his face, but his clothing indicated that he was part of a group that I never had the pleasure of encountering, but I certainly heard a lot about.

"You're Legion?" I lowered my pistol slightly. Back when I ran my clinic, I had encounters with all sorts of factions, but never someone from the Legion.

Legion dropped his rifle and held his hands up. "I would prefer it if you killed me here and now rather than turning me in to the NCR."

"What's a Legionary doing here?" I took a step forward and he cowered away slightly.

"Me and some of the other recruits were on a raid, but a group of NCR troops outnumbered us. We were separated and I hid here. I've been trying to make it by on the mantises or whatever else I could find." He adjusted the bandana so it was tighter on his face. "You're sure taking your sweet time killing me."

I clipped my pistol back to my belt and knelt down. My eyes fell upon a particular weapon on the ground; a machete.

"Looks like you have the materials to attack me too."

He scoffed and trailed his fingers against the rifle. "Ran out of ammo a long time ago, and besides there is no point. If I were to kill you, then there would be a corpse I would have to live with. It's not like I can leave either. I'll be dead before I'm even halfway back to camp."

I picked up the machete and examined it. I never really used blades in combat before, usually I relied on firearms or my spiked knuckles. Can't see how someone could defend themselves with this.

"You can use that if you want." He wiped the dust off of his black goggles. "You can even keep it as a trophy. You can take my head too. You'll be a hero to the degenerates."

"Stop that." I placed the machete back down and Legion seemed genuinely confused.

"Who are you? Did the Legion send you to bring me back or something? Why would they get a woman to do that."

I shook my head. "I'm Celeste, and no. I actually never encountered the Legion before."

"Most people like you would call that a good thing."

I shrugged. "So are you going to tell me your name, or will I have to keep calling you Legion?"

"Livius." He bowed his head. "Now, why are you here? Why aren't you killing me?"

"Due to recent events, I'm not a big fan of the whole 'trying to kill people when they're not doing anything to you thing. Plus, I've always been fascinated with the Roman Empire." I adjusted my glasses and leaned against one of the desks.

Livius laughed a bit. "You're a strange degenerate." He sighed a bit. "Listen, if you're not going to kill me, could you possibly spare some food or water? The mantises only lasted for a few days."

"Let me check." I pulled my bag off of my shoulder and began sorting through it. "I have a few scraps of gecko meat, but it's not much."

"No, please." He sat up straighter. "Anything will do."

I handed him the meat and he pulled the bandana down. As he devoured the meat like a vulture tearing apart a corpse, I searched through my bag for my canteen.

"Hm…" I shook the canteen, the tiny bit of water sloshing around inside. "Sorry, I meant to refill earlier."

"It will do, please. I haven't had water in so long." He held his shaking hands out, his eyes begging me from behind his goggles.

I handed him the warm canteen and he downed the entire thing in just a few seconds.

He handed the canteen back to me, catching his breath and wiping his mouth with the back of his wrist.

"Thank you, _Amicus_." He pulled the bandana back over his mouth.

My ears perked up. "So you speak Latin?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, I'm not as fluent as some of the older Legionaries."

I grinned. _"Mihī placet lingua latīna."_

Livius froze. "You…you also speak Latin?"

"Like I said; I love the Roman Empire. Also I'm a doctor and learning the language helped me with remembering the names of diseases and stuff like that." I tugged at my tank top, wondering how Livius could handle the heat in that uniform. "Of course I never had someone to talk to, so I'm a bit rusty."

_"Tu modo facis."_ Even though his face was covered, I could almost tell he was smiling.

I smiled back and glanced up at the ceiling.

"Listen, Livius, I have a weird proposition, but hear me out."

Livius picked at the hem of his kilt. "Yes?"

"Well, I'm trying to track someone down and apparently they went to the Strip. Do you know how to get there?"

"Yeah, sure." He sat up a bit. "There is a quicker way, but the road is overrun with deathclaws. Any sensible person would take the long way, which leads through Primm, Nipton, and Novac. It's a long walk, but you'll be less dead."

"Hm, you seem to know your way around the Mojave."

"I've been on multiple raids on both sides of the Colorado. We actually have a good understanding of the roads. So, what's this proposition?"

_I can't believe I'm doing this._

"I am willing to help you get back to wherever you're from, if you help me track down the man I'm looking for."

Livius looked stunned. "You would be willing to travel with a Legionary?"

I shrugged. "Well we both have the abilities to help each other. I think it's a fair compromise."

He scratched his head under his leather helmet. "I guess…but this better not be a trap."

I sighed. "I told you, I'm not going to kill you." I pushed myself back to my feet. "Now stay here, I'll be right back."

He seemed worried, but he nodded. "It's not like I can go anywhere else."

I ran out of the schoolhouse and back into the main part of town. There was a part of me itching to tell the town about the Legionary living in their town, but I managed to fight the urge. I stopped in front of the general store and dug my hand into my pocket. I didn't have many caps on me, but I still had them. At least whoever shot me had the decency not to loot my corpse.

I stepped into the store, a broken bell clinked as I opened the door. The shopkeeper who was sweeping the area behind the cash register looked up.

"I take it you're the one Doc Mitchell was patching up."

I shrugged. "Looks like my reputation gets around. Do you have any clothes here?"

He pointed to a wooden chest against the wall with his broom. "Right over there. Five caps a piece."

_Livius better thank me for this._

I knelt down by the chest and searched through it. From what I could tell, he had a rather small frame. I tried finding the smallest pieces of men's clothing I could find, although it would have been funny to bring him women's clothing.

After digging through the dusty clothing, I found a simple pair of slacks, a white button-up shirt, a green sweater vest and a pair of leather shoes. Not the ideal outfit for venturing across the Mojave, but it was the only thing that appeared to fit him. Plus, anything that wasn't Legionary would have to do.

I dug out twenty caps from my pocket and dropped them on the counter. The shopkeeper examined my items and gave me a weird look.

"What's the outfit for? No offence, lady, but that looks way too small for you."

I paled a bit. "Um, I found someone stranded outside town. Raiders took his clothes."

"Raiders are taking clothes now?" he sighed and shook his head. "These are weird times. Take care, miss. Sorry about that." He took the caps and began counting them.

"It's okay. Have a nice day." I formed the clothes into a bundle and tucked it under my arm.

* * *

"Oh, Livius!" This time I kicked down the door and, yes, it felt great.

Livius yelped and jumped back, aiming his rifle. When he saw it was me, he gave a sigh of relief and lowered his weapon.

"Please don't burst in like that."

"You know, if you're going to aim a weapon at anyone, you should make sure it's loaded first." I walked over and dropped the clothes in front of him.

He looked up at me. "What's this for?"

"We need to make sure no one knows you're Legion." I adjusted my glasses. "Hopefully it will fit you."

Livius picked up the green sweater vest. "I'm not going to abandon my Legionary status."

"Either you abandon your status or you abandon your head. It's a temporary disguise too, stop whining."

He sighed and dropped the vest. "Fine. Mind turning around? Unlike our historical counterparts, we don't exactly tolerate nudity."

I chuckled a bit. "Of course. I'll be outside."

I probably spent ten or fifteen minutes sitting outside of the school house. Right when I was considering going back in just in case he didn't know how a sweater vest worked, he finally stepped out.

The shirt and vest seemed slightly too big on his skinny build, but overall it didn't look out of place. He combed his fingers through his sweaty dark hair, his large green eyes and overall young features didn't exactly scream "savage slaver and killer" to me.

"Oh good, it fits."

He sighed and rubbed his eye. "This feels weird. Do you have any more water?"

I handed him my canteen. "Fortunately for you I filled up before I came here."

He grabbed it and began chugging the water, making me wish I was able to have a few sips before I gave it to him. Hopefully he wouldn't drink like this all of the time; I didn't want my trip to the Strip to me littered with bathroom breaks.

As he drank I stared up at the sky. The sun was just about to start setting, causing streaks of orange light to cut through the town.

"We're going to have to build your reputation around here slightly. Just in case any rumors leak from here."

"Hm?" Livius looked over at me, still drinking from the canteen.

I glanced over at the gas station. "Let's just say, tonight, a Legionary is going to save the town from a Powder Ganger attack."

* * *

It was difficult to find normal conversational phrases in Latin, since most people look for the philosophical quotations, I guess. But I found a few sources and used Google Translate as a last resort.

_Amicus_—Friend, trustworthy person

_Mihī placet lingua latīna_—I like Latin

_Tu modo facis_—Now you do

Of course I changed the original story a bit, since I don't see the point in just rewriting my gaming experience completely without bringing something new. And besides if I was to do that, it would be about 50 chapters of:

"And then I walked through the desert."

"And then I accidentally lead Livius into a mine field."

"And then I walked through the desert."

"And then I opened the door on my body and got stuck."

"And then I accidentally lead Livius off a cliff."

"And then I walked through the desert."

"And then I accidentally lead Vulpes into a mine field." And so on.

Oh, also I have an ask blog thing for Celeste and Livius at ask celeste and livius . tumblr . com


	2. Chapter 2

"Okay, run the plan by me one more time." Livius trailed behind me as we walked back to the Prospector's Saloon.

"I'll give you all of the details later. Just try to act natural and don't give away your allegiance."

"Your requests seem to contradict each other, but I'll try my best."

I lead Livius into the saloon and walked into the bar. Fortunately Trudy was still working behind the bar. I sat down on one of the stools, but Livius seemed a bit more hesitant to, choosing to stand behind me instead.

"Oh, you're back." Trudy looked up at me. "Who's this?"

"This is, um, Levi. I found him passed out outside of town."

Livius gave a little wave.

"Two visitors in less than a week. Must be a new record." Trudy crossed her arms. "Can I get you two a drink?"

I shook my head, but something in my brain scolded me for turning down a drink twice in one day.

"Actually, we're here to help you with your Powder Ganger issue."

Trudy sighed and shook her head. "What are you dragging this down into?"

"Please, you have to trust us." I held my hands up. "I promise we won't harm Ringo."

Livius gave me a confused look, but I returned it with a look of _I'll explain later_.

She leaned back and ran her fingers through her dark hair. "It's not that I'm worried about, for the most part. Well whatever you're doing, I'm not bringing my saloon into this."

I gave a slight smile. "You have nothing to worry about. But you probably don't want anyone outside of their homes tonight. If you can get that message across town, that will be helpful."

Trudy paled and even Livius seemed a bit uncomfortable, but I gave a dismissive wave. This plan will work, I just know it.

"I'll see what I can do…" she looked over at one of the citizens who was seated on the far side of the bar and he nodded back at her.

* * *

The sun was setting rapidly, but I managed to fill Livius in on all of the details as we ran up to the gas station on the hill.

"…one of the Powder Gangers mentioned something about an ambush on the town tonight. Hopefully we can stop them before that happens."

"How do you know he wasn't bluffing?" Livius reached behind his head to tie his hair back.

"It didn't sound like he was. Besides if he was, if his gang is able to come into town this frequently, they can't be too far away. We can take care of them there in that case."

Livius looked over his shoulder and knotted his brows.

"Honestly, if this town was wiped off of the map, it would be doing the world a favor."

"Okay, this place isn't my ideal vacation spot either." I placed my hand on one of the rusted gas pumps and tried to catch my breath. "But I have a feeling lots of people pass through here. If we get a good reputation here, that can help us out greatly in the future."

"Help us, or help _you_?" Livius leaned against one of the gas pumps and kicked a pebble away.

"Both of us, really. The less people who know you as a Legionary, the less people will be lining up to shoot you. The better things that people hear about the both of us, the more likely people will be willing to help us. A good reputation never hurts."

Livius frowned. "I can't believe I'm lowering myself to help these degenerates, but whatever it takes."

"That's the spirit!" I pressed my foot against the gas station door and pushed.

"That's close enough." A man wearing grimy, patched up clothing greeted us—with a pistol being aimed in our direction. Despite obviously hiding out for a while, he was clean shaven and his full head of brown hair was neatly trimmed.

"Normally one would say having guns aimed at them three times in a week would be overkill." I raised both of my hands to show I wasn't a threat. Livius reached for the pistol clipped to my belt but I slapped his hand away.

"Sorry about that. I thought you were a Powder Ganger." He put the gun away, but Livius didn't seem to relax at all, still eyeing him like he was a bomb that was about to go off.

"A common mistake. So I take it you're Ringo?" I placed a hand on Livius' shoulder and gently pushed him away from the man.

"Yeah. Who are you?"

"I'm Celeste and this is Levi." I slapped Livius lightly on the back and he frowned, obviously sick of this false name business. "We're here to help you with this Powder Ganger issue."

Ringo grinned a bit. "'bout time someone came around. So do you have a plan or are we just going to rush in and give the Powder Gangers three targets to practice with?"

I wiped the dust off of my glasses. "Well if my sources are correct, the Powder Gangers will be attacking the town tonight—looking for you. I say the three of us try to stop them."

"H…what‽" Livius just barely managed to stop himself from slipping into Latin. "How many Powder Gangers are we talking about‽"

"He's right." Ringo sat down against the wall. "There's only three of us and god knows how many of them. They have dynamite too. They're going to splatter us against the buildings like a new paint job."

I paced around the gas station, running my fingers through my hair. Livius shifted back and forth on his feet nervously. The light shining through the cracked window was getting more and more dim; we were running out of time.

Ringo waved his hand and turned around to the shelves that lined the far end of the gas station. "Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll take my chances getting killed in the comfort of this gas station rather than out there."

Livius huffed a bit and turned around to leave, but I grabbed his collar.

"Listen, the town will be destroyed if we don't deal with the Powder Gangers. We can either hand you over to them, or give you a fair chance in a fight. We don't live in a vacuum. If we leave like th_"

My voice was cut off by the ear drum shattering sound of an explosion. I instinctually hit the ground, the way I was trained to back at my old lab (still don't know how that's supposed to protect me from a chemical explosion) and Livius dove behind the counter.

Ringo managed to regain his balance, holding his hand against the wall for support.

"Damn…what was…?"

I looked up, my glasses sliding off of my face.

"We don't have much time. We can either go out there and face them, or let them slaughter everyone else in the town before they eventually find us. What's it going to be?"

Ringo paced around the gas station a bit more. I would have to press harder.

"The people in this town gave you a place to stay, and you're not even going to repay them?"

"Listen, I need to think this over."

There was a gunshot outside and I cringed. "You can think it over after we kick their asses." I grabbed Livius' collar again, but he slapped my hand away. "Fine. Levi and I will head out. But if we die, you'll have to deal with that. You'll have to deal with the fact that everyone who tried to help you ended up dying."

"Hold it right there." Livius took a step back. "Now you're sacrificing me to those deg…people?"

"Levi, you and I both know you're not in any position to make these decisions."

He dug his nails into the rough wood of the counter, then nodded.

"Fine, but I'll need a better weapon."

I unclipped my pistol from my belt and handed it to him, as well as the ammo I had in my bag. "Take this. You shoot and I'll see if I can use close combat. Maybe I can get some dynamite from them if I get close enough."

Livius picked up the pistol and gave me a questioning look, but I shook my head.

"Do you honestly think you're going to find the opportunity to get close to them?"

I picked at my spiked knuckles. "I'm afraid it's our only option. And besides, it's not like Ringo is going to help us."

"I told you I have to think it over!" Ringo pressed his forehead against the gas station wall. "Alright, fine. I'll do your little suicide mission."

"Thought you'd turn around eventually." I pushed my bangs to the side, narrowly avoiding slicing my face with the spiked knuckles as I did so.

I reached out to push the door open, but Livius stopped me.

"So do you have any more of a plan?"

"Nope!" I threw the door open again and readied my fists.

Fortunately I could see other people fighting the Powder Gangers, but from where I was I couldn't tell who was whom. I ran out, Livius and Ringo moving ahead of me. The smell of smoke filled my nose and the sound of gunshots filled my ears.

I could count six Powder Gangers. Livius was crouched behind an overturned wooden cart and I could tell he was not experienced with the pistol. I made a mental note to teach him a thing or two if we survived.

A bullet whizzed past my ear and I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. What kind of idiot runs into a gunfight without a damn gun?

_No, don't think. Find someone who would be an easy target._

One of the Powder Gangers had his entire torso exposed; this will be perfect.

The sound of my heart pounding managed to overpower the gunshots and I locked my eyes on the shirtless Powder Ganger. I hated hiding away like this, but I just needed a damn gun. I took another deep breath.

"This is the stupidest thing I've ever done!" I jumped out from behind the boulder and ran towards him as fast as I could. The Powder Ganger looked up in shock and I slammed my fist into his abdomen, puncturing the skin.

He yelled out and I dug the knuckles in further while I looked for his gun. I felt the cleaver he was holding slice across my cheek. I bit my lip to keep my screams of pain inside, my blood was dripping onto his face.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" I slammed my fists into his face. "You came to a gunfight without a shirt or a gun?! You're even dumber than me!"

At this point, the Powder Ganger was just a withering mess on the ground. I stood up and kicked him again for good measure, but I could feel a certain presence behind me.

_Don't turn around…_ I fixed my eyes on the bloodied man on the ground. There was no way I was going to survive two bullets in the head.

The gun went off. I squeezed my eyes shut and fell to my knees, but the bullet scrambling my brain into a pulp never came. What if I was dead? What if I was dead this entire time and Goodsprings was my afterlife? Shit, the afterlife sucks.

I opened my eyes just a crack. I still felt like I was made out of concrete matter, but why did my back feel…warm?

My head slowly turned around and the corpse of one of the Powder Gangers was splattered against the pavement, and apparently my back.

When I managed to catch my breath, I pried his pistol from his fingers. I looked up and saw Livius standing, a tiny trail of smoke trailing from the gun I gave him.

"Thanks, kid." I wiped the blood off of the gun and stood up, my knees were still shaking.

Livius just nodded and ran off. I pushed my glasses up and looked around the town.

Blood dripped from the walls and the road was littered with the bodies of the Powder Gangers. It didn't look like any civilians were killed so far, but I wasn't going to push our luck.

"Celeste!" I heard Livius yell from behind the saloon.

"Livius!" _Shit, I used his real name_. I ran to the saloon, my feet sliding on the puddles of blood.

I turned the corner and aimed the gun, but Livius didn't seem to need my help. He was just standing there with his arms crossed, his sweater vest splattered with blood. A Powder Ganger, the one I saw earlier in the saloon, was kneeling in front of him with his hands tied behind his back.

"Where the hell did you get the rope to do that?" I clipped the gun to my belt and stomped over to him.

"I found the man they answer to." Livius pushed his bloody bangs behind his ear. "Now we must decide which punishment is appropriate."

"Punish…what, no?!" I grabbed his shoulders and forced him to look into my eyes. "You're not with the Legion right now." I said through gritted teeth. "We don't torture people. We're just going to kill him like civilized people."

"But he must pay for his actions."

"Wait, Legion?!" The Powder Ganger looked up with a terrified expression, but I just smiled back.

"Don't worry about it." I turned back to Livius. "He's not even worth it. He's just the leader of a tiny troop of Powder Gangers that's taking over a dinky little town. There will be plenty of time for torture when we find the asshole I'm looking for."

Livius narrowed his eyes at me, but then he let out a long sigh.

"As you wish." He spun around on his heel and shot him between the eyes.

"Whoa, whoa!" I jumped back at the burst of gunfire. "I wanted to do it!"

"What?"

"I didn't get to shoot one."

"Oh…" he held the gun out to me. "Want to shoot him now?"

"No, the magic is gone."

"I'm sorry. You can shoot the next one, I promise." His face twitched in a way that I suppose was supposed to be a smile.

I shrugged and stepped around the body, trying to avoid stepping in the puddle of blood that was slowly growing around him. I knelt down and slowly rolled him over onto his stomach.

"What are you doing?" Livius let the pistol fall limp in his hand.

Using the small knife I kept in my pocket, I managed to cut away the rope that bound his wrists together.

"I want it to at least look like he had a chance." I stood up and scraped the blood off of my boot with the packed earth.

"He had a chance, but he failed." Livius reached back and untied his hair, snapping the tie back on his wrist.

"So then you kill him." I wiped away at the blood from the cut on my face.

"But we punish those who are weak. That's how the Legion remained strong."

"You're _not_ in the Legion right now!" I slammed my fist against the wall of the saloon. "I would like to get to the Strip with as little torture as possible, if you don't mind."

"Legion?"

_Fuck_.

I turned around slowly and saw Trudy standing there with her arms crossed, soon joined by other citizens of Goodsprings.

"I knew there was something strange about all of these visitors, but I couldn't put my finger on it until now. You two are Legion spies, aren't you?"

"What? No!" _Shit, brain don't fail me now_. "We're just, uh…it's an expression. A figure of speech or something…"

Livius shook his head and stepped forward, his head bowed.

"No, there's no point. While I can assure you that the woman has nothing to do with this, I am a Legionary recruit." He lifted his blood stained shirt sleeve, revealing two black striped tattooed on the skin of his forearm. Even though he looked nervous, I could also feel a sense of pride when he spoke.

Livius was a skinny young man with large, round green eyes and a sweater vest, but by the way the people in the town looked at him you would have thought he was a fifteen foot super mutant with a grenade launcher.

"I'm afraid we have no choice but to turn him in to the NCR." Trudy took a tiny step back. "It wouldn't do good things for our town if people find out that we were knowingly keeping a Legionary here."

Livius sighed. "This was a stupid idea." He held his wrists out and closed his eyes.

"Wait, are you kidding me?" I grabbed Livius' shoulder and pulled him back. "This man just fought alongside you against the Powder Gangers and you're just going to throw him away like this?"

I scanned the small crowd for Doc Mitchell. We locked eyes, but he just sighed, his eyes falling on the blood and bodies that now adorned the town.

Trudy's entire body stiffened, but then her shoulders slumped.

"I suppose we don't have to…but you have to leave."

"That was part of the plan to begin with." I pushed my glasses up and marched off. "You comin' kid?"

Livius opened his mouth to say something, but when no words came out he nodded and ran after me, pulling his sleeve back over his tattoos again.

"Wait!"

I stopped in my tracks and turned around. Ringo was running after us and I stood my ground.

"What is it?"

He eyed Livius nervously and cleared his throat.

"I just wanted to thank you for your help." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bag of caps. "There should be around a hundred in there. I'm sorry, but that's all I have to offer for now. But if you pop by the Crimson Caravan, I can pay you the rest."

I took the bag and tossed it around in my hand. "Thank you…you're not going to mention the little details, are you?"

"What do you mean?"

I motioned toward Livius.

"Oh. Don't worry, I wouldn't dream of it."

I slipped the bag into my pocket. "So that's settled. Thanks for the caps."

Ringo shook his head. "No. Thanks for what you did."

When he ran off, Livius shook his head.

"I wish I didn't have to be in hiding like this."

"I'm afraid we don't have another choice." The sun was almost entirely behind the horizon at this point. "Well we can't stay here anymore. I'll look around for a place to camp for the night."

Livius nodded. "I'm going to go get my things from the schoolhouse."

"All right. Be careful."

Livius gave a dismissive wave and walked off.

* * *

After walking around for what felt like hours, I eventually found an abandoned trailer by the Goodsprings wells. Hey, they said nothing about using their resources, right? The trailer was rusted, half buried in the ground, and the only things in it was a mattress packed with dirt. It certainly wasn't the Ultra Luxe, but it was something.

Livius made a fire and began roasting a gecko we shot nearby. He changed back into his recruit uniform, even though I advised against it.

I shivered and rubbed my upper arms. For a desert, it was surprisingly cold at night. The cold wet feeling of blood on my back didn't help matters.

"You need to get that shirt cleaned." Livius examined the gecko to make sure it was cooked all the way. "That blood is not going to smell good after a while in the heat."

I pulled at the straps of my tank top. "I would, but it's not like I have anything else to cover up with. Besides, I'm not wasting water on something like this."

He pointed behind himself to the wells. "We're by the wells."

"And I'm not angry enough at the town to use their water to wash blood out of my clothing."

The gecko finished cooking and we began picking it apart like two vultures.

"So, who is this person you're looking for?" The fire made Livius' armor look ablaze with oranges and reds.

My teeth ripped off a particularly stringy piece of gecko.

"Some asshole shot me in the face. Obviously I have some questions."

Livius gave me a skeptical look. "You were really shot in the face?"

I sighed and lifted my bangs up, showing him my scar. "Apparently he's going to the Strip. You mentioned something about Primm and Novac. Maybe he passed through those places too. The more information I get, the better."

"Why were you shot?"

I shrugged. "That's what I want to know. One moment I'm delivering a package, the next I'm on my knees with a gun pressed to my forehead."

"What kind of package?"

"Just some…" I paused. "What's the Legion's stance on chems?"

Livius gave me an odd look. "We think that they are poisons that feed on the weaknesses of degenerates.

"…just some stuff. Anyway, I guess something was smuggled in the package, but I still don't know all the details. So what about you?"

Livius poked the firewood with a stick. "Yes?"

"Why Legion?"

He shrugged. "Why anything?"

"Don't get philosophical on me, mister."

"I was born into it, and I'm glad. I don't know what I would have done if I was born to just some mere degenerates."

"You mean like me?"

Livius smiled a bit. "You may have saved my life, but you're not an exception."

"Fair enough."

He cleared out some of the rocks behind him and laid down.

"So are you like a delivery girl or something?"

I shook my head. "I had a small clinic out in the Mojave with my brother." I sighed and leaned back against the trailer. "When raiders attacked, I managed to stay alive by…by developing and delivering chems."

Livius scoffed and shook his head. "Under the rule of Lord Caesar, that sort of thing would never have happened."

I smirked a bit. "Well no matter who's in charge, there are going to be problems." I stared up at the sky, watching the flames from the fire climb up.

When the gecko was finished, I extinguished the fire and stepped into the trailer.

"Well, I'm going off to bed."

Livius sat outside by the entrance, my pistol still in his hands.

"You go ahead. I'll keep watch."

"You sure?"

He nodded.

"Okay then." I went inside and laid back on the mattress. "Goodnight, Livius."

"Goodnight, _Amicus_."


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up to the sunlight forcing its way through the cracks of the old trailer like a rusted blade. My back ached from the stiff mattress, which was somehow even more uncomfortable than the other beds I slept on before. I forced myself into a sitting position and adjusted my glasses.

"Livius?" I stood up, stretching a bit. When he didn't respond, I frowned and peered outside.

Outside the front entrance of the trailer, Livius sat slumped against the metal wall, pistol in hand and fast asleep.

I smirked a bit and sat down next to him. It looked like this was his first proper night of sleep in a while. Nothing wrong with letting the kid get some rest.

The sun beat down on my back and I realized that couldn't be an option. I wanted to make it to Primm before it got excruciatingly hot and there was no way I was going to spend two nights in the trailer.

"Livius, wake up." I whispered in his ear. "It's the NCR. They're coming for us."

His eyes snapped open and he leapt to his feet, pointing his pistol in random directions.

"Where are they? Where are they?"

When he swung the pistol in my direction, I laughed and pushed the gun down.

"Relax. I was just teasing."

Livius looked confused, but then he just looked angry.

"Seriously? Why would you do something like that? I nearly burst an artery!"

"Sorry about that." I picked up my canteen and swished the water around inside. "But seriously, we need to get a move on."

He looked back at the place by the trailer where he was "keeping watch" and he sighed, his shoulders slumping.

"I fell asleep, didn't I?"

I nodded and Livius frowned.

"I can't believe I…what if something were to happen?"

"Don't worry about that now." I picked up the bag with his supplies and tossed it to him. "Get your disguise on. I want to make it to Primm by sundown."

Livius caught the bag and turned it around in his hands. "Really? Again with the disguises?"

"Really? Again with the complaining about this?"

Livius' jaw clenched, but he didn't argue back. With a huffy sigh he stepped into the trailer to change.

I sat down and took off my tank top; the blood did smell revolting at this point. I rubbed the blood stains against the desert floor, trying to get the cracked earth to soak up the liquid or at least get the sand and dust to cover it.

"Can someone help me?!"

I heard footsteps coming towards me and the sound of someone shouting at me. Fortunately none of Livius' Legionary equipment was left out in the open.

"What was that?" Livius stuck his head out of the trailer window, still struggling with the vest and he covered his eyes seeing how I didn't bother to cover my chest.

I pulled the now brown tank top over my head and shrugged.

A man in a leather vest and tousled brown hair ran over, stopping to catch his breath.

"Um, are you okay?" I handed him my canteen, in case he couldn't make it to the well that was just a few feet from us.

He shook his head. "No, not that. Please, I need your help!"

Livius stuck his head out of the trailer window again and we exchanged a look.

"Yeah, um, we'd love to, but we're kind of in a hurry."

"Please, I'll pay you!"

_Shit, he said the magic words._

I dug my fists into my pockets and stepped cautiously around the man. He shook like a freshly skinned animal.

"What kind of help are we talking about?" I could almost feel Livius' look of _what the hell are you doing?_

The man clasped his hands together in front of his face.

"Oh thank you so much, you're a saint!"

"I try my best. How can we help you?"

He turned around and pointed to a section of the mountain ridges behind the wells.

"My girl is trapped up there by the geckoes. Please, I don't know how much time there is left!"

"Oh, I thought you were going to send us after some deathclaws or something." I pulled my spiked knuckles out of my pocket and began to polish them. "We'll take care of your gecko problem. But first, what sort of payment are we talking about?"

The man shook his head, his eyes wide. "There's no time for that!"

"50 caps."

"Take what you want, just hurry!"

"Why don't you save her yourself?" Livius stepped out of the trailer and tied his hair back.

"I tried, but I couldn't get to her. But please, before it's too late!"

I frowned and stared at the ridge. _This shouldn't take long._

"All right. Come on, Levi. Let's not keep the man waiting."

* * *

We hiked up the mountain without too much struggle. Occasionally a gecko would jump out at us, but Livius or I would manage to kill it quite easily.

"That man is a coward." Livius sat down on the side of the trail and held his hand out for the canteen.

"True, but this coward is paying us."

I handed him the canteen and he took a long drink. When he set the canteen down, he picked at the collar of his vest and sighed.

"I'm getting sick of_"

"Hiding. Yes, I got it." I leaned back against the mountain. "Just think of yourself as a spy or something."

"A _Frumentarius_…" Livius stared up at the blue sky with an almost dream-like expression on his face.

"A what now?" _Did he just say he wanted to be corn?_

"A _Frumentarius. _The eyes and ears of the Legion. Handpicked by Lord Caesar himself." He gave a wistful sigh. "They're the best; nothing can get past them."

I picked at my nails. "You sound like you really admire them."

Livius nodded. "To serve my lord like that, it would be the biggest honor."

"Well maybe you can view this disguise as training."

He sighed and nodded, but then he looked up at me and his eyes widened.

"What? Did I say someth_"

"Get down!" Livius grabbed his machete and lunged at me.

"What the hell?!" I hit the floor and I heard the sound of a blade cutting through flesh, then the bloodied head of a gecko fell in front of my face.

Livius stepped away and tried to shake the blood off of the blade, his breathing heavy.

"I can't trust you to turn your back to anything."

I picked a bit of gecko off of the back of my head.

"Unfortunately I don't have eyes on the back of my head. Maybe I can trust you to be my eyes and ears before you become the eyes and ears of the Legion."

Livius smiled, but then it quickly faded away. "Speaking of which, did you hear…"

"Yeah, I heard that too."

The sound of creatures scurrying. And it was getting louder.

I prepared my pistol and Livius got into a proper fighting stance, gripping his machete.

"I don't see anything…" Livius frowned and looked around. "But I can hear_"

He was cut off by a brown-green creature falling on his face from the cliffs above us. He gave a muffled yell and tried to pry the gecko away as its claws dug into his skin.

Before I could help him, I could feel claws digging into my calf. I aimed the pistol and shot the gecko in the face, but another one latched onto my arm.

"Fuck, these things bite!"

Livius pulled the gecko off and began to hack it to bits with the machete.

"Don't tell me you haven't been bitten by one before."

I tried to respond, but then one of the little abominations bit my thigh and I yelled out, instinctively pulling the pistol's trigger.

The gunshot cracked through the mountain and the bullet whizzed past Livius' ear. He hit the ground and covered his ears, only to get swarmed with more and more geckoes.

"Sorry!" I ran over to him, gecko still dangling off of my thigh, and tried to find the best way to go about this without accidentally shooting him.

"Just be more careful next—Oh by Mars this hurts! It hurts!" His voice rang out from the pile of squirming geckoes.

I shot the gecko that was attacked to my thigh.

"Why don't you just attack them."

"I would but-gah! But I dropped my machete!"

I saw his machete lying on the ground, gleaming from the sunlight and blood and I ran over to it.

_Leg's going numb…_I picked up the machete and I realized I had no idea how to fight with one.

"You're not leaving me to die, are you?!"

"Be patient!" I gave a few practice swings then lunged at one of the geckoes.

I barely managed to scratch it, but when it turned towards me to attack I was able to slice it to tiny bits. After killing a few more, the geckoes had their attention entirely on me. Oh goody.

They swarmed at me and I backed up until I felt my back until I felt my back hit the side of the mountain. I held the machete out at the little monsters.

"Get back!" When they didn't comply I stomped one with my boot and stabbed another, but it was too much. There was no way to attack one without getting attacked by another and I could feel my body going numb.

My limbs moved like jelly, but I managed to stab or crush a good number of the geckoes, while the rest took the hint and ran the fuck away.

I struggled to catch my breath, the machete clattered to the ground. My clothes were ripped and covered in blood. I could feel how scratched up my legs and arms were and whenever the wind blew it just blew more sand into the wounds.

Livius was in an even worse condition. His clothes were reduced to bloody scraps of fabric and it looked like his entire body was covered in scratches or blood. When he didn't sit up, I got worried and limped over to him.

"Livius, come on, kid wake up." I rolled him into his back and slowly poured the water from my canteen onto his face. His eyes didn't open, but eventually he opened his mouth to drink some of the water.

I gave a sigh of relief and got some medical supplies out of my bag. As I bandaged his wounds, I made a mental note to raise the payment amount with that man.

Livius' eyes slowly opened and he looked up at me.

"Oh, you're up." I applied some medicine to the scratches on his face. "How are you feeling?"

"I've been better…" his voice creaked a bit. "How about you?"

"Not as bad as you." I applied some of the medicine to my own wounds. "Fortunately for you, I've done this before. I may have never been bit by a gecko before this moment, but I knew a lot of people who did back when I ran my clinic."

Livius managed to sit up with my help and he rubbed his temples.

"Taken down so easily by some geckoes." He shook his head. "I'll never be a _Frumentarius._"

I sighed and handed him my canteen. "We all have our slip ups. Don't be so hard on yourself." I let him finish off the water I had left and I got to my feet. "Now come on. We have some chick to save."

"Oh right. Good deeds. You should definitely charge more for this."

"Already noted. Now can you walk or will I have to carry you up the mountain?"

Fortunately Livius was able to stand, although he was still a bit shaken. I supported him by swinging his arm over my shoulders until we reached the halfway point where he was able to walk on his own.

"Careful." He held his bandaged arm in front of me. "Bear trap."

"Thank god you're here. I would have stumbled right into that."

"You're welcome. Now let's see if I can disarm this." He knelt down next to the trap and I began to wander around the area a bit, watching my steps more carefully now.

"Hello?" I called out. "Any one th_" my foot caught on something and I stopped, staring down. _Oh…shit…_

"…then you just pull this and…" Livius looked up from the trap. "Are you okay?"

"Livius…get over here." I took a step back.

"Alright, what's going o_" He stopped next to me and followed my line of vision. "Oh."

Lying beneath our feet was the mangled corpse of a woman in a purple dress, the body already decayed and swarming with maggots. Only her torso was lying there, but I didn't want to know where her legs went to be honest.

"How are we going to explain this to him?" _I should forget about asking for a higher payment now._

"Normally I would suggest just bringing the body to him, but something seems off." Livius paced around the body, never taking his eyes off of it.

"What? What is it?"

"By the looks of it, this body was probably lying out here for weeks, maybe a month. So that entire time, that man was just standing around while his 'girl' is rotting away?"

"You said yourself that he's a coward."

Livius frowned. "True, but this still doesn't feel right." He shook his head. "Let's get going. The sooner we tell this coward about his dead girl, the sooner I can lie down."

"Yeah, I'm not in the right state to travel to Primm either."

We walked down the mountain together, but in the distance I saw something running towards us. I prepared myself for another gecko attack, but instead the man from before stood in front of us, a pistol in his hand,

"Um…hey…listen, about your girl…" I looked at Livius for help.

"Sorry about tricking you like this." The man pointed the pistol at us. "But I wanted to get the loot on top of the mountain."

I stared at him, dumbfounded. But before I could fully gather what he said, Livius grabbed my gun from my belt.

"You fucking degenerate!" He shot him in the leg and he fell over, clutching his calf. Livius limped over and continued to fire the gun at him.

"How dare you trick us like that!"

Bang!

"You are the worst kind of degenerate!"

Bang!

"You are nothing but scum beneath my boot!"

Bang!

Normally I would have said he was being needlessly ruthless, but this time I didn't mind. I sat down on a boulder and watched Livius fire again and again.

Eventually it was overkill. I walked over to him and placed my hand on his shoulder. Livius' breathing was heavy, but he seemed to calm down, placing one more bullet in the man for good measure before returning the gun to me.

"I'm moving our trip to Primm to tomorrow. Come on, let's get some rest. We have plenty of geckos to eat now."


	4. Chapter 4

Livius made a better recovery than I expected. After a good night's rest he was up and walking around the camp, twirling his machete in his hand.

"So, when are we leaving for Primm?" He put on his disguise like I told him to and sat down on a boulder.

I finished wrapping up the last of the gecko meat in cloth and stuffed it into my bag.

"I hope to hit the road sometime today." I stood up and looked down the road which sloped down a hill and snaked around the mountains. In the distance the horizon was cut by a roller coaster which ran through Primm.

Livius began shoving his things into his bag; his Legionary uniform, his machete, his rifle.

"You're in a good mood." I stepped around him, digging my hands in my pockets.

Livius shrugged. "Well I have a feeling we might actually make it to the Strip."

"You had doubts before?"

He waved his hand dismissively. "As sort of a 'look before you leap' kind of thing. But thinking it over, yeah I think we have a chance."

"Don't jinx it." I swung my bag over my shoulder. "But I'm glad you're eager. The sooner we get to the Strip, the better."

Livius actually managed to grin as he picked up his bag. Despite his full recovery from the gecko attack the day before, his clothes were still bloody and shredded. Maybe I could find something better for him in Primm.

* * *

While walking down the road to the town, I noticed Livius now had a sort of PTSD reaction to geckos. Whenever one scurried across the road, he would freak out and lunge at it with his machete. So while I'm getting my revenge for being shot in the face, Livius can get his revenge on every single gecko in the Mojave.

I kicked a rusted tin can to the side and Livius froze, his eyes wide.

"What? Another gecko?"

He shook his head and pointed straight ahead.

The road made a deep slope which lead to the entrance of Primm. At first I didn't know what he was pointing at, but then I saw the flag with the two headed bear, laying flaccid on the flag pole in the still air.

"NCR…" He took a step back and I sighed.

"Remember, you're in disguise. They don't know you're Legion."

"But you expect me to just walk right under the NCR's nose without doing _something_?"

"Would a _Frumentarius _give themselves away like this?"

Obviously the _Frumentarius _card worked because Livius sighed and slumped his shoulders.

"Fine. But I'm not taking any orders from them."

"We're just walking past them. Relax, will ya?"

Livius bit his lip and nodded, exhaling with a series of shaking breaths.

We walked to the entrance of the town, trying to appear as casual as possible. But Livius' stiff posture and the way he began to sweat as he walked under the NCR flag made him look like the most suspicious person ever, or maybe it looked like he had "issues".

From the corner of my eye, I saw an NCR trooper in a brown uniform and goggles run towards us. I gripped Livius' arm in case he tried to lash out.

"Hey what are you two doing here?" he crossed his arms. "Primm is off limits."

"Um, what's going on?" I tried to get a good look at the town from outside the concrete wall, but I only saw the roller coaster.

"Some convicts took over the town about a month ago." He adjusted his goggles. "Citizens were told to remain indoors and people have been forbidden to enter unless they want to get their asses kicked."

"Then why doesn't the NCR do something about it?" Livius crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

_Oh you're not going to get sassy on me, Legion._

"We'd love to, but we don't have the proper equipment."

Livius scoffed. "Of course. The NCR_"

I jabbed him in the side. "_Is doing the best they can in protecting the people and old world values." I forced a smile which I can only hope looked genuine.

The trooper frowned. "Yes, I see. So do you have business here?"

"Nope, just passing through."

He eyed us for a while, then just sighed. "Fine, you may enter. But don't say I didn't warn you."

"Thank you, sir!" I began to walk to town while Livius sped in front of me, eager to get away from that NCR man.

Primm wasn't as dusty as Goodsprings, but I wouldn't want to travel here anytime soon either. While there were actual roads, they were cracked and littered with pieces of rusted scrap metal. Some buildings were reduced to nothing more than rubble, making it look like a bomb went off inside of it. Overall it wasn't much different from the towns I saw back when I lived in the east.

Livius stopped in front of a bakery, but was disappointed to see the doors and windows were boarded up.

"I see the NCR is doing a great job as usual." Livius crossed his arms and leaned against the boarded up window.

"Listen, I'm not a fan of their ideals either. But what can we do?"

"Under the rule of_"

"Yes, under the rule of Caesar, everything will be wonderful and it will be like the war never happened. Got it."

"I don't appreciate you mocking my lord like that."

"We can discuss this later. Let's just keep going."

We turned the corner and came face to face with something that I'm sure everyone wants to see when visiting a town for the first time.

Slumped against one of the buildings was the body of a man, dried blood plastered to his neck where his throat had been slit. Flies swarmed around the body, collecting around the wounds and his sunken in eyelids.

Livius poked the body with his foot and the flies began swarming even faster.

"Ew."

"Well that's inviting." I knelt down, but I tried to keep my distance. From what I could see, there really wasn't anything that would explain his death. He wasn't dressed like any gang member, he didn't appear to have anything on him. Maybe he was just an asshole, who knows?

"Let's go." Livius stepped away from the body. "We're going to encounter a lot of death out here, and if we keep stopping to look at all of it, we're going to end up like him."

"Right behind you. But how about we look around to see if we can restock on supplies?"

Livius looked at his disguise, which was in even worse condition than the clothes belonging to the dead body. He nodded.

"Good point. I have a feeling that we won't have much luck with negotiations while I look like this."

We explored the town for a while, but it looked like every single building was either boarded up or locked.

"Not a very exciting place." I pushed my glasses further up my nose.

"I don't know, we found a dead body. That's pretty exciting."

"I take it you Legionaries are fun at parties."

"We try." Livius stopped and held his arm out, preventing me from going any further.

"What? What is it?"

"Those two men ahead of us. I have a bad feeling about them."

A bit further down the road, two men stood with their weapons drawn.

"You think those are some of the convicts the NCR man was talking about?"

Livius narrowed his eyes and nodded.

"They're not worth it, though. Let's just go. We can restock on supplies elsewhere."

I nodded but the minute we turned around to leave, the sound of a gunshot cracked through the air. Livius and I ducked into the ruins of a destroyed building. I peered over what was once a concrete wall.

"They're coming towards us!" I whispered over to Livius who pulled his machete out of his bag.

"Let them come. I got this."

"We know you're there!" one of the convicts yelled. "You can't hide from us forever!"

"Are you serious?" I whispered back to Livius. "You're using that? They have _guns._"

He stared down at his reflection in the blade. "Don't doubt my abilities to do this."

I gave an irritated sigh and peered back over the wall, aimed my pistol at one of the convicts and fired.

The bullet hit him in the collar bone and he nearly fell to the ground. He clutched his bleeding wound and tried firing his gun with the other hand.

Bullets pinged against the concrete wall and I ducked my head again.

"The point is…" I aimed my pistol and shot blindly at whatever looked like a convict to me. "It doesn't matter if it's a machete or not, you're still bringing a knife to a gun fight."

Livius sat crouched behind a metal pillar and looked at the convicts as if planning when would be a good time to jump out at them.

"I told you. I don't have any ammo."

"Well then you could just_Gah!" A searing hot pain shot up my leg, burning every single nerve in my body. Fuck, I was so done with bullets being inside of me.

I rolled over onto my side and clutched my leg, biting down hard on my lip to keep the screams of pain inside. My vision was turning brown, but I could hear Livius moving behind me.

_What was I thinking? I'm a scientist, not a combat expert. This is the second time I was shot this week and I recently got my ass kicked by some geckos._

Three gunshots cracked in my ear. I couldn't feel any of them hit me, though. My eyes peeled open and despite my pain, forced myself to sit up.

The two convicts laid dead on the ground a few feet away, blood oozing out of the wounds in their heads. I gave a sigh of relief, but I took one look next to me and realized I gave that too soon.

Livius was laying on his back next to me, one hand on the pistol and another clutching his stomach, the blood stain on the front of his sweater getting larger and larger.

"Oh shit…" I grabbed Livius' shoulders and tried to rearrange him into a more comfortable position. "Livius? Livius!"

I checked his pulse and I was able to breathe again when I found he was still alive. I grabbed my first aid kit from my bag and slowly moved his hand from his abdomen, lifting his shirt and vest to get access to his wound.

I managed to fix up the wound to the best of my abilities. I used a lot more bandages than I probably needed, but I didn't want to take any chances.

"Come on, Livius." I looped my arm under his and tried to lift him up, my leg crying out in pain as I put pressure on it. Normally you're not supposed to move someone under situations like this, but I didn't know what else to do and almost a decade of medical training went out the window.

"Come on, you can do it." I gritted my teeth and tried to move forward despite the burning pain in my leg which made my entire body feel numb.

With each step, my vision became more and more blurry. I forced myself to keep moving. If not for me then for the bleeding man I was carrying. It was stupid. When he gets home, he's going to be a ruthless killer again. And here I was, saving him.

But he wasn't just a killer. His Legionary status did not define him and he got hurt trying to save me, so I owed it to him to get him to safety.

Eventually the pain became too much. I cried out in pain and I collapsed on the ground in front of a building, clutching Livius' head so his skull didn't make impact with the concrete. My eyes rattled in my head as I looked up at the building.

_Please, please don't be boarded up_.

Before I could get a good enough look, I felt my entire body go numb and my vision went black.

* * *

When I came to my senses, my nose was invaded by the smell of cigarettes and cheap booze, two things I would never not welcome. My back ached and I found myself on the floor, a simple wool blanket being the only thing separating me from the scratched up floorboards.

I sat up and fortunately I didn't feel as bad as I did the first time I was shot. I was so done with getting shot then waking up in some stranger's house. One would say that once is enough, but no.

The leg that was shot was bound with bandages. I tried testing it by pressing my foot against the floor and trying to push myself up. Pain shot up my leg, but I somehow managed to stand.

I rubbed my eye and looked around. It looked like I was in the back room of a casino. Cash registers were lined up on the counter, separated from the rest of the casino by a simple metal grate. Through the grate I could see a few people moving around the main room of the casino, some with their weapons drawn. Probably not a good idea to cheat here.

There was a tiny bit of movement in the corner of my eye. Livius was also lying on the ground, his bandages were redone and he had a damp cloth on his forehead. Our bags were placed on the counter and I began to panic. What if the people who brought us in found his Legion uniform inside?

I limped over to Livius and knelt down next to him. He stirred a bit and groaned in pain. I adjusted the cloth on his forehead, although I wasn't sure how that was supposed to help a bullet in the stomach.

His eyes slowly opened, and after a few moments of opening and closing them he managed to keep them open.

"Where…"

"I don't know." I adjusted the bandages on my own leg. "But it looks like we're going to be taking it easy for a while again."

Livius glared at me, but it looked like that took too much energy for him to do properly.

"Why can't I just…just…"

"Just what?"

"Just…not get my ass kicked wherever we go…"

I laughed a bit. "Just get some rest. We both managed to survive getting shot in lethal areas. Maybe we're just lucky."

"Yeah…lucky…" he laid his head back against the floor. "How's your leg?"

I picked at my bandages. "I can walk, but it still hurts."

"That's…something…" his entire face went pale and his eyebrows knotted in pain.

"Hey, don't talk if it hurts that much." I gripped the countertop and pulled myself to my feet. "Don't move. I'll try to get more information."

Livius gave a little nod, but even that seemed to wipe all of the energy from him.

I've never been inside an actual casino before this. Sure I've seen gambling, but I've never been to Vegas or any other places that have actual casinos. That being said, I did expect them to be a bit more…loose?

Only about two of the people in the casino were actually gambling, the rest were just walking around with their guns out. They looked around like something bad was going to happen any moment, like any second now and one of the other people there was going to snap and start shooting everyone.

Unlike the casinos in Vegas that I saw pictures of, this casino seemed very drab overall. The only piece of decoration that really stood out was an old automobile from the days before the war that was placed in the center of the room. A row of mannequins surrounded the automobile and I felt a line of cold sweat dart across my forehead.

_Whatever you do…don't turn your back to them…_

My leg burned with every step, but I pressed onwards and tried to keep my eyes on the mannequins the entire time. No one was approaching me and I couldn't really tell who brought us here just by looking at them.

Near the slot machines, a Protectron with a black cowboy hat slowly made its way around the guests, its mechanical limbs creaking. Maybe I was saved by another robot. I always knew I could trust them more than humans.

I walked over to the robot as fast as my injured leg would allow.

"Hey, robot. Did you help my friend and_"

"Howdy." The robot turned around, its glowing screen of a face made me cover my eyes. "Welcome to the Vikki and Vance Casino."

"Yes, yes. Well if you didn't help us, then who did?"

"Vikki and Vance was founded in_"

"Alright, this isn't getting me anywhere."

"You're not going to get much information from a tour robot."

I gasped a bit at the third voice and I turned around. An older man with skin that looked like a broken clay pot that was glued back together stood behind me, a cigarette dangling from his lip.

"Were you the one who rescued us?" I kept my eyes locked on his cigarette; I would kill for one right now.

He puffed at his cigarette. "Well I wouldn't call it rescuing since you and the little one collapsed right outside the casino. Name's Johnson Nash."

"Celeste." I rocked a bit on my bad leg, trying to get used to applying pressure to it.

"Ah, Simoneau?"

I tensed up, nearly falling on the floor.

"Um, have we met?"

Nash shook his head. "No, but your brother used to come here. Mentioned you quite a lot. What was his name again? Thomas? Tommy?" he rubbed his temples. "Brain's gettin' old."

"Theodore…" I bit my lip. My vision felt like it was swimming.

"Yeah, that was it. I could tell right away you two were related. You're a splitting image of him."

"Well we were twins…" I rubbed the back of my head and closed my eyes; I could feel the gecko I ate for breakfast slowly climbing its way back up. "So did he really come here?"

Nash nodded. "He'd pop in from time to time. Brilliant doctor, that kid was. Helped out some of the sick and injured without charging a single cap. At first I thought it was a scam, but that man didn't have a cheating bone in his body."

Sounded just like him. Even though we had a little clinic opened in the wasteland, he would always leave for other "projects". Provided free treatment to anyone no matter what faction they belonged to or how they got injured in the first place. Part of me envied him. Part of me thought this was stupid. If you're good at something, don't do it for free. But Theo was always too good for that.

"He was a good surgeon…" I managed to force out.

"Haven't seen him in a while, though. I bet he's out giving surgery to kings now."

That was it. I was not going to dance around the subject anymore.

"He was killed by raiders two years ago."

An awkward silence fell over both of us and I was actually thankful for that. I kept my face cold and expressionless. I wasn't bitter towards Nash, but just to the situation in general.

Theodore was a man who saved lives and he was brutally killed, but I managed to stay alive by developing substances that ruined people's lives. Hello, Mojave. My name is irony.

"I'm sorry, I had no_"

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it." I tried to keep my voice even, but it came out sounding like a snarl. I didn't even feel angry. I just didn't want to do the dance of sympathy now.

"Who was your friend with the bullet in his belly?"

_Oh thank god, a subject change._

"Levi. Found him stranded in the wasteland. He's travelling with me now."

"Ah, so I see the tradition of helping people runs in the family?"

I managed to force a toothy grin, but I could feel my jaw cracking as I did so.

"We were attacked by some convicts outside, but Levi was out of ammo so we couldn't defend ourselves properly." I looked around. Funny how everything else in the town was boarded up, but the casino remained open.

"Well you got to be careful out there." He patted his shotgun. "We've been hiding out here for a while now."

"I see…" I rubbed the back of my neck. "You know if I can buy some ammo here? I don't want something like this to happen again."

"Oh yes. We do offer supplies here." He put out his cigarette. "What kind of gun does the youngster have?"

I squinted my eyes and tried to remember. "A rifle. Varmint rifle."

"I have just what you need."

I searched around in my pockets for my caps, but I only came out with two.

"How much can this get me?" I held out the two caps. Who knows. Maybe they were desperate and they would take any caps they could get.

"That will get you…exactly one round."

I frowned and clenched my fingers around the caps.

"This is all I have. I need some fresh clothing too."

"Sorry, youngster. But this isn't a charity." He looked at my bandaged leg. "Actually…how about I cut you a deal?"

I placed the sweaty caps back into my pocket. "What is it?"

"The convicts took over the Bison Steve Hotel across the street, kidnapped our deputy too. How about if you clear out the convicts, I'll get you what you need for free."

"What?!" I crossed my arms. "I was just shot by one. I'm not going to march in there like an idiot."

Nash shrugged. "Well that was my offer. The entire town went to chaos since the convicts moved in and our mayor was killed."

"You're expecting me to do something that even the NCR can't do? What makes you think I have a chance?"

"You have a gun."

I twirled my pistol on my fingers. "Yes, but a gun can only do so much. Plus I don't know how much ammo I have left either."

"10mm?"

I clipped the gun back to my belt. "Yeah."

Nash reached into a leather bag that was hanging off of his shoulder and placed a few more rounds in my hand.

"This should cover you. I'll give you more if you manage to clear the convicts out."

I reloaded the pistol and glanced back at the room where Livius was. There was no way he would be in the right state to go along with me. I was going to have to go solo.

"Alright. You got a deal."

* * *

"_This is stupid. This is stupid. This is stupid."_ I clutched my pistol to my chest and opened the double doors of the hotel just wide enough for me to slip through. Fortunately there was no one in the lobby, but I crouched down and tried to move as slowly as possible just in case.

The entire room was trashed. Broken glass was strewn about, tables were knocked over, a woman's body was folded over the check in counter, a dry pool of blood collected around her. On the far side of the room, a few tables were turned over, blocking off the hallway behind it.

I made my way to the tables, crouching behind it. Hopefully the wood of the table could slow down, if not stop, the convict's bullets. I peered over the top and looked down the hall. My pistol felt warm and heavy in my hand.

A man, dressed very much like the convicts who attacked us earlier was pacing around the hall. I narrowed my eyes and aimed my gun, but it was too late.

"Aha!" He got out his own gun and began shooting in my direction and I ducked back behind the table.

"Shit!" I bit my lip until I thought it was going to bleed and I fired again, shooting him in the throat.

I relished in my victory for a little bit, but I could hear the sound of more voices from down the hall. Another convict appeared in the hallway and I got ready to shoot again, but then something fell next to me.

Dynamite.

"No…no!" I tried to scurry away, keeping my body below the tables and not wearing out my leg too much. I hid behind the checkout counter, the smell of the rotting corpse collapsed on top of the cash register made my eyes water.

The dynamite went off, but I wasn't prepared for it. The back of my head slammed against the concrete wall of the hotel and I could feel a sticky warmth trail down my jaw from my ear.

I clutched the side of my face and jumped out from behind the counter. What kind of idiot sets off explosives in a small, closed in environment?

My leg felt great in the casino, but now all of the pain came crashing back. I limped over as fast as I could and put another bullet in one of the convict's brains. My breathing was getting quicker, I felt like my lungs were going to explode.

When no more convicts came, I felt relieved but also a bit worried. Part of me was tempted to just leave now, tell Nash that the deputy was dead when I got there, but I pressed onwards.

My hair probably looked more red than blonde now and my ears were still ringing from the explosion. I stepped over the dead bodies and limped down the hallway, doing everything in my power to stop myself from passing out right there.

There was a larger room down the hall and two more convicts ran out; one with a gun and the other with a crowbar. Part of me almost didn't care if I died right there as the pain in my leg and my head became almost too much for me to handle.

I focused my attention on the convict with the gun, taking him out with a few shots to the chest. Unfortunately I forgot about the one with the crowbar, until I felt something make contact with my side and a loud cracking sound filled my bloody ears.

A scream of pain erupted from my throat and I fell against the carpet. The convict above me raised the crowbar to smash it against me again, but I aimed my pistol with shaking hands and shot up at him.

Blood sprinkled onto my glasses and he fell down, his weight crushing me. A shaking breath escaped my lips and I pushed him off, but only to get face to face with the worst so far.

Another convict stood on the other end of the hall, but I couldn't see him too well. But the weapon he held…that I was worried about.

A burst of flames erupted from the weapon in my direction and I pressed myself against the ground further. I squeezed my eyes shut and I could feel the flames just inches from my face. When I could feel they were gone, I took a moment to catch my breath before trying to stand back up again.

The incinerator weighed down the convict, making it easier to aim at him, but my hands were so shaky that hardly mattered.

I rolled back on the ground to dodge another burst of flames and managed to shoot his leg. He cursed and stumbled back, but he didn't put down the weapon. I would have to get closer. Incinerators didn't work well in close combat.

Swallowing back any sense of intelligence I thought I had, I crawled towards him and latched on to his leg like a child.

"What the fuck are you…" he tried to shake me off, but that only made my hold on tighter. He kicked me where the previous convict smashed me with the crowbar, but I kept all of the cries of pain inside.

My thoughts became animalistic, primitive, fight or flight. I scowled and bit his thigh as hard as I could until I could taste blood.

The convict cursed again and slammed his fist against the top of my head, causing my glasses to topple off of my nose, but I kept going. I reached for the knife in my pocket and shoved the blade into the side of his torso.

This time he dropped the incinerator. I pushed him over, the blade still wedged deep inside him. I twisted the blade and his screams were gargled in his mouth. My breathing was even heavier now, the metallic smell of blood almost made me light headed.

I kept stabbing him until he stopped moving entirely. By this point, I was completely sticky with blood. My eyes were watering, my ears were still ringing, but I pushed myself off of the convict and limped into the back room.

The hallway bled into a large room with chairs arranged in a circle, some animal was being roasted over a fire pit. Looks like the same people who used explosives inside also made a campfire. Perfect.

There was a kitchen nearby and even though my vision was fading, I could see something moving inside. I placed my hand on my sticky knife and dragged myself into the kitchen.

The blood that was on me dripped against the pure white linoleum and I gripped the sinks for support. Behind the counter, a man with scraggly blonde-grey hair sat with his wrists and ankles bound.

"Damn. Looks like you had fun out there." He didn't smile, but the tone of his voice indicated he saw something humorous about this.

Words failed me, but after some struggle I managed to force out,

"Go…fuck…yourself…"

He snorted. "Well I don't suppose you went through hell and back just to insult me."

I wanted to smack him right there, but I didn't have the energy. Instead I cut the ropes around his ankles and wrists.

He rubbed his wrists and ran off, not even acknowledging my presence afterwards. I'm not the most polite person in the world, but a simple "thank you" would have sufficed.

* * *

I woke up and everything felt like it was on fire. Livius sat near my head, looking down at me.

"Hey…kid…" I rubbed my eyes. When my vision focused, I could see a small pile of supplies next to our bags. Livius was dressed in clean clothes.

"Why did you do that?"

I managed to shrugs and gripped the side of my face which was wound with bandages.

"We…needed…supplies…" Each word felt like another crack to the ribs with a crowbar.

Livius bowed his head and handed me a stick with some pieces of meat impaled on it.

"I saved some food for you."

I took the food and tried to eat it, but every bite made my jaw hurt even more.

"How…how are you feeling?"

Livius felt the bandages under his shirt. "I'm feeling a lot better now…" he looked back at me. "You take care of yourself, okay?"

I leaned back against the floor and closed my eyes.

"You got yourself a deal, _Amicus._"


	5. Chapter 5

We stayed in Primm while we waited for me to recover. With one screwed up leg, one bleeding eardrum, and two broken ribs, it looked like that was going to take a lot longer than I originally expected.

Livius and I sat at the bar in the Vikki and Vance Casino, eating breakfast and exchanging small talk which was just as bland and stiff as the food we were eating.

"Who's Theodore?" Livius' voice cut through the silence we eventually built up.

I sighed and ripped off a piece of meat with my teeth.

"Depends on who you ask. Most will say he's an angelic surgeon who gave away procedures out of the goodness of his heart. But to me, he's my brother who made dirty jokes to memorize medical terms."

"The old man was talking about him earlier."

"Nash. His name is Nash."

"I thought you said it was Theodore?"

"What? No I meant…" I groaned and rubbed my temples. "Just forget about it."

We returned to our silence, before Livius piped in again.

"They were talking about how they needed a sheriff."

I cleaned off my glasses with the front of my shirt. "Do I have to jump into a hotel of crazed killers for this now?"

Livius shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Soon, this town will be under control of the mighty Caesar."

"Yes, yes. Of course." I rubbed my eye and yawned a bit. "Still, don't you think it would be irresponsible to leave this town without a leader?"

"No."

I frowned. "But you saw what was going on out there. I took care of most of the convicts, but that's not saying they won't come back. No, we need to find someone so this doesn't happen again."

Livius returned to picking at his food. "Why do you care so much? This town threw you into a situation which nearly killed you."

I picked at the bandages which were bound around my torso. "My brother helped this town a lot when he…when he was able to do so. I want to pitch in a bit too."

He knit his brows. "Still, the sheriff was killed by those same convicts he was supposed to protect the town from. Technically you would be most fit to be sheriff, but I don't think you could do it."

That option didn't even cross my mind, but the moment he said it the defenses shot up.

"What? Why don't you think I could do it?!"

Livius pulled back a bit. "It's just…women can't handle the responsibilities of having so much power…?"

"Oh, is that what you're being told back at your little camp? Need I remind you that you were taken out by some geckoes."

A blush swept over Livius' face, going out to his ears. "Well, you got your ass kicked in that hotel."

"You try going against an incinerator with nothing but a small knife."

Livius leaned against the bar, not saying a word. Part of me agreed with him; there was no way a town I was in charge of wouldn't devolve into chaos. Of course that had nothing to do with my gender.

"Going back to the original order of business." I took a swig of whiskey from the bottle I was given. "We're going to have to find someone who wouldn't be easy to kill, someone who knows about the town…"

Something caught the corner of my eye. Primm Slim, the tour robot was wandering around the casino, spewing out random facts about the casino in that metallic voice of his.

"What's your opinion on a robot being in charge of a town then?"

Livius gave me an odd look. "What are you…" he glanced over at the robot. "Oh…are you seriously…"

"Yes." I pushed myself off of the barstool, clutching my bandaged ribs. "You know where Nash is?"

Livius shrugged. "Last time I saw him, he was by the slot machines."

My leg still hurt like hell, but I managed to walk over to the slot machines. Nash was pacing around the machines, occasionally pulling at the levers without putting any chips in.

"Oh hey there, youngster." He lit a cigarette. "How you holdin' up?"

I leaned a bit on my leg. "It's getting better. Hey, I have an odd question."

"Yes?"

"Do you happen to know anything about robotics?"

He blew smoke out of the corner of his mouth. "Used to, but it doesn't come as easily as it used to. What, are you thinking about getting into it?"

I nodded. "I think it would be an important skill to know."

Nash thought for a while. "Tell you what, youngster. I have a book which should help you out. I could let you borrow it while you're here."

"Really? Thanks." I managed to grin a tiny bit.

"It may take a while since it probably got buried over time, but I'll see if I can find it." Nash left the casino and I prayed that I actually got all of the convicts.

I sat back at the bar with Livius, this shroud of awkward silence being even more uncomfortable than the last.

"Sorry about what I said…" Livius picked at a button on his shirt. "I'm sure you can be a great leader despite being a woman."

"You need to work on this apologizing business."

Nash returned with a book that was about as thick as my wrist. He handed it to me, the pages were torn and waterlogged.

"Hopefully this can give you a feel for it while you're here."

"Thank you Nash, seriously."

He gave a little nod and walked off. I slammed the book on the bartop and flipped through the pages.

"Hopefully they have it…aha!" Near the back of the book, they had thousands and thousands of orders for robots, sorted out by the type. I eventually found the codes for the protectrons.

"They don't have a code for 'turn robot into sheriff' so I may have to combine codes." I scribbled down some of the sequences on a napkin. "We could turn it into a sex robot."

Livius crunched his face up. "That is revolting…"

I smirked a bit. "You know what they say about different _strokes_, if you get what I'm saying."

Livius looked like he was going to puke and in my victory, I went back to the book.

"Okay, I think I have the sequence that will do it." I got off of the bar stool and made a b-line over to Primm Slim."

"Howdy pardner." The glowing screen burned into my eyes. "Welcome to the Vikki and Vance Casino."

I read off the sequence and a few odd whirring sounds came out of Primm Slim's body. At first I thought I broke him, but then a few things seemed to clink into place.

"_Bzzzt…_Law Enforcement Protocols reinstalled, pardner. Initializing use of force authorization…authorization found. Yee-haw!"

I gave a sigh of relief. It turned out to be easier than I expected, and hopefully he won't go rogue and shoot up the town. I wondered if Nash knew that he had a book which could potentially tell him how to reprogram the robot into a killing machine. Or a sex robot.

I walked back to the bar.

"It worked."

Livius yawned a bit. "Well that's great…I think I'm going to start working on our plan. I want to get out of here as soon as you recover."

He got up to leave and I looked over my shoulder to make sure no one was looking, then I ripped out the pages of the book with the codes on it and shoved the pages into my pocket.

* * *

We were probably a quarter mile from Primm when Livius thought it was a good idea to take a "shortcut".

"If we just cut across there…" Livius pointed to a vast field of desert tucked by some of the mountains, the air was completely clouded from the sand being picked up in the air. "…we can get to Novac a lot quicker."

I squinted under the harsh Mojave sun. "Shouldn't we just try sticking to the roads?"

"We can cut the travel time in half by taking this shortcut." He checked the map he scribbled on a napkin back at the casino.

It was probably best to stick to the roads, but I was not looking forward to another week or so of walking down a dusty road and going around the mountain. Would probably be easier just to cut through it.

The field didn't look too bad from a distance, but actually walking through it was an entirely different story. The sand blew past us like whips, stinging our exposed skin where the sun hasn't hit us already. I nearly lost my glasses three times so I just opted to remove them and carry them in my pocket. Livius could be my seeing-eye-Legionary or something.

Something dark scurried past my foot and I smashed it with my boot. Whatever it was, it was probably a bug of some sort judging by the loud crunching noise it made when I stepped on it.

"Radscorpion." Livius shoved his machete into another one of the creatures. "There has been a lot here, but fortunately they're just the small ones."

"Aren't the smaller scorpions even more deadly, though?"

Livius fell silent for a moment.

"Let's just keep going."

We kept pressing onwards, but the number of radscorpions kept increasing. First two, then five, then eight, and before I knew it we were fighting off a whole army of them. The fact that I was doing this half blind didn't make things easier.

Livius cracked another one open with his machete, but then his entire body froze.

"Celeste…whatever you do, don't turn around…"

Naturally I turned around, and my jaw dropped.

An army of radscorpions, about ten times larger than the one we were dealing with scurried towards us. And each scorpion was roughly twice as large as me. There was no way I could step on these.

Livius readied his machete "If we time this correctly, we could probably take on_"

"Are you crazy?!" I was already trying to move away from them. "We can't take on all of them!"

"A true Legionary never runs in the face of death."

"I'm not dying to a some bugs!"

Livius mumbled some more Legion crap and he looked about ready to pounce those over glorified crabs.

"You're being senseless!"

I grabbed Livius' collar to pull him away. He lost his balance and fell back against the scorpion corpse he was working at, the stinger lodged itself into the small of his back. He yelled out in pain.

The scorpions were getting closer. Without thinking, I scooped up Livius and swung him over my shoulder like a sack of flour. I just barely avoided getting skewered by one of the giant scorpion's tails and I ran as fast as I could. I couldn't tell where I was going, if this was even in the right direction. We could be running into more scorpions for all I knew.

Livius' body was cold and shaking and fell limp against my shoulders.

The longer I stayed in the Mojave, the more I realized how much I hated animals.

* * *

Livius woke up with a start. I laid him on his stomach while I tried to treat the wound on his back.

"Where…"

"Oh good, you're up." I reached into my bag and began preparing a radaway for him. "I managed to get us away from the scorpions, but because of your stalling I didn't really have the time to figure out where I was going. So we may be closer to Novac, or we may be further away."

He groaned and rubbed his eye. "Always the animals…" he stared at the radaway. "What's that?"

"A radaway." I began cleaning the skin around his wound with rubbing alcohol. "This will remove any traces of radiation."

He swatted my hand away and pulled his shirt back over the wound, cringing a bit as the dirty fabric hit the tender flesh.

"Do not bring that poison any closer to me."

I glanced back at the bag of radaway. "What, this? You're already technically poisoned. I'm just trying to help you."

"Us Legionaries are against the use of chems. All they do is make the body weak and unable to defend itself."

"Yeah, that sounds really stupid." Yeah I was insulting his beliefs, but as a chemist I was going to be a bit defensive.

Livius turned his head away from me. "Just let me sleep it off."

I frowned and put the radaway back into the bag. "You're going to be sleeping for a long time if you don't let me treat that wound."

He waved his hand, still facing away from me. "Then just throw some water on it."

"Oh yes. Water will remove any traces of radiation. Why didn't I think of that?"

I heard him give an irritated sigh.

"You know, it's because of science that this world fell into chaos."

"Really? I thought it was the Communists and people who didn't like the Communists."

Livius didn't respond. I stood up and brushed the sand off of my pants.

"I'm going to look around. Maybe someone here knows the quickest way to Novac."

Livius gave a little wave from where he laid on the ground and I hiked my bag over my shoulder.

* * *

This time I stuck to the roads and, surprise, I was able to avoid any radscorpion attacks. However, it didn't seem like anyone else was out. No traders, no little shacks in the middle of nowhere, nothing.

I was just about to give up, but I saw something in the distance; smoke. Coils of smoke rising and twisting up towards the sky. I rubbed my glasses with the front of my shirt and I sped my steps up.

The old wooden sign with "Welcome to Nipton" carved on its decaying surface stood crooked by the town entrance, but that wasn't the first thing that stood out to me. Waving in the limited wind was a red flag with a golden bull in the center of it. The ends were frayed and even though I've never seen a flag like this before, I could just tell right away what these were.

"Legion…" It appears that their bad reputation was not undeserved. The entire town was destroyed. Human heads were skewered on sticks throughout the town, the buildings were splattered with blood, the town smelled strangely like burning flesh.

Normally one would say that it's probably a bad idea to waltz into a place like this, but not only could I possibly get some direction…but maybe Livius could finally go home. If the people who did this haven't left yet.

I was about to make my way into the town, but I saw someone running towards me. I grabbed my pistol and got ready to attack, but a man in a Powder Ganger uniform darted past me.

"Woo! Winner of the Nipton Lottery right here, baby! Fuck yeah!"

I watched him run off into the distance.

"Huh…"

Pretty much all of the buildings were either boarded up or on fire, except for one. Right by the entrance of the town, the general store still seemed to be intact, save for a few broken windows and such.

I didn't really feel like spending any more time with these skewered heads, so I decided to take my chances with the general store. If I was ambushed, well, I can throw some chems at them or something.

The door creaked as I opened it and I slipped inside. Fortunately the store was empty, but the trashed appearance of it indicated that someone was definitely here before. Shelves were knocked over, broken glass crunched under my boots, every bit of merchandise was either stolen or destroyed. I squinted my eyes and I could see the vague outline of someone sitting on a chair in the corner of the room.

"Hello?" I stepped closer. In the limited light streaming through the gaps in the broken window, I could see he was dressed in a Powder Ganger uniform and it looked like he was very much dead.

The man stirred a bit and he opened his eyes.

"Dammit! You woke me up!"

I took a step back, nearly tripping over the cash register which was knocked to the ground.

"What the hell happened here?"

"The Legion happened. What does it fucking look like?!"

I frowned and wiped the dust off of my glasses. "You know if they're still here?"

"How would I fucking know?! Now how about you make yourself useful and get me some medicine or something?!"

I pulled my bag off of my shoulder and got some of my supplies out.

"I don't want you to overdose, though." I prepared a syringe of morphine for him. At least someone here appreciated chemistry.

"Right now, I'd pray for an overdose."

I swabbed his arm. "What happened to you anyway?"

"Legion assholes broke my legs."

I glanced down at his legs. The bones were cracked and bent in multiple places. In some places, small shards of bone stuck out through the skin.

"Sorry, I didn't notice that. Bad eyesight and all."

"After what I saw out there, consider yourself lucky for that."

"How did they break?" I examined his leg, while still preparing to inject him with the morphine. "This didn't come from a normal fall or something."

He gave a sigh of relief as the needle pierced his skin. "The Nipton Lottery."

I pushed the substance into the vein. "Yeah, I saw another Powder Ganger talking about that. What's that about?"

"Yeah, that was the asshole who won. When the Legion came, they gave us these fucking lottery tickets. Some dog-headed dick began reading out names and talking about how we were bad people." He groaned and rubbed his eye. "First came the beheadings, at least those were quick. Then the crucifixions which just went on and on. That asshole you saw got first place so he got to walk free. I got second place so I was allowed to live, but they broke my legs."

I cleaned off the needle. "A rather diplomatic way to destroy a town. At first I thought it was just a normal raid."

"Are you fucking insane?!" His hand clenched into a fist. "You heard all of that and that's what you take from it?!"

"Well it is kind of creative. You have to give them that."

"No I don't! This isn't some art project, my legs are broken!"

I hoisted the bag back over my shoulder. "The morphine should kick in shortly. I'm afraid with the supplies I have, I can't fix your legs completely. But I can make it less painful."

The Powder Ganger groaned. "Why don't you just shoot me then?"

I paled a bit. I still didn't like the idea of killing someone when they didn't have a sighting chance.

"How about I…give you a higher dosage?" I slipped the bag back off of my shoulder.

"You're a goddamn saint then."

My hands shook a bit as I prepared the substance. Of course back when I developed chems for a living, I knew that what I was making had the potential to ruin people's lives or even kill them. But this…this felt different. I took one look at those destroyed legs and I felt a bit better with what I was doing.

I injected the lethal amount of morphine into his system and got up and left without exchanging any words. It was hard for me to comprehend that the kid that I picked up belonged to a group that did all of this.

While venturing deeper into the town, I finally came face to face with the crucifixions. The Powder Gangers were tied to makeshift crucifixes made out of old telephone poles. At first I thought it was slightly better that they were tied rather than nailed down, but at least when you're nailed to the cross, you can die of blood loss before the elements hit. Crows swarmed around them, pecking at their dejected and pale faces. I bowed my head down and tried to keep walking without looking at them.

The presence of people who were not facing a gruesome death caught my eye and I looked up. A row of people wearing armor similar to Livius' stood in a row on the steps of the city hall, as if they were waiting for me. The man in the center appeared to be wearing a sort of hood, but I couldn't tell what it was from where I stood.

Hood Man began to slowly walk towards me and I reached for my pistol, even though I knew I probably didn't have a chance.

"Don't worry, I won't have you lashed to a cross like the rest of these degenerates." The hood he was wearing was actually the head of a dog and I would have laughed if I wasn't so terrified. "It's useful that you happened by."

I gave a sigh of relief; they weren't going to kill me.

"Well that's good. Actually, it's useful that you happened by too. You see I have one of your other Legio_"

"I want you to witness the fate of Nipton." His face remained expressionless, his skin was so pale it was almost blue. "To memorize every detail."

"Done and done. Now if you can listen_"

"And then, I want you to spread the word of what you just saw. Especially to any NCR troops you run across."

"Okay, okay!" I crossed my arms. "Who are you anyways?"

"I am Vulpes Inculta, of Caesar's Legion." His eyes were covered by a pair of goggles that were so dark I couldn't even see his eyes behind them. "I serve my master as one of the best of his _Frumentarii_."

"_Fru_…Wait, you're a _Frumentarius_?"

Vulpes frowned. "You're aware of us, profligate?"

"Yeah, I actually have been travelling with one of your recruits for a while now. He's a good kid and wants to be a _Frumentarius. _If you follow me, I can take him to you."

He scoffed. "You actually expect me to follow you?"

I shrugged. "It would be nice…"

Vulpes turned away from me and signaled to his other men. "Let's go. There's nothing else for us here."

The other Legionaries began to file after him and I just stood there like an idiot.

"Wait, you're just going to leave? Can you at least point me to the best path to Novac?"

When Vulpes ignored me, I roughly grabbed his upper arm. Probably not one of my smartest moves.

He stopped dead in his tracks and smacked my hand away. "Never lay your hand on me again, profligate. There is nothing else for us to discuss."

"You know where I can get a cute hat like that, or do you have to be a _Frumentarius? _Do they come in the pug variety?"

Vulpes looked like he was doing everything in his power to remain calm and collected and he just marched off with the rest of the Legionaries.

"Degenerates like you belong on a cross." One of the recruits said to me.

"You guys really like that word."

* * *

I walked back to our camp and Livius seemed to be fine. He sat by the campfire, roasting some kind of meat that we collected. I saw him do this many times before, but now I couldn't watch him do that without seeing him tie some person to a cross, or setting a house on fire, or hacking away at the tendons of a man's neck. I heard that the Legion did horrible things, but damn…

"Oh, you're back!" He held out some meat and a bottle of soda. "I wanted to apologize for what I said earlier, if it offended you. I found these sodas in an abandoned trailer. It's a bit warm, but they're really good."

I imagined him storming into a trailer, nailing the people inside to the metal walls, and taking their soda before burning the trailer to the ground. I gave a little nod and took the soda, but didn't drink it.

"So, did you find anyone?" He cracked open his own soda and downed the entire bottle.

I stared down at the cracked earth for what felt like hours.

"No."

* * *

**I like to think pugs survived the apocalypse.**


	6. Chapter 6

Out of all of the dusty, run down towns we have visited, Novac was by far the most well kept. A few houses were scattered around and while there were a few that were torn apart, but for the most part it looked like the owners actually took care of them. A large statue of a dinosaur loomed over the motel which was surrounded by a simple chain-link fence.

"What's with the giant gecko?" Livius squinted his eyes up at the statue.

"That's a dinosaur." At this point I was seriously starting to doubt the Legion's education system. "How about we rent a room here?"

Livius was still staring at the dinosaur, as if he expected it to come to life or something, but he nodded.

We stepped into the motel's main office. The air was considerably cooler and the light twangs of banjos on the radio played in the background. From behind a desk, a woman with gray hair pulled back into a messy bun sorted through some papers.

"Hello, and welcome to the Dino Dee-lite Motel." She looked up at us with an overall warm expression. "What can I do for you kids?"

I cleared my throat. "Yes, I'd like to rent a room."

She opened one of the drawers on her desk and handed me a key ring.

"There you go, that will be one hundred caps. Take the stairs closest to this office, your room is the first one you'll see." She pushed her glasses up. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

I placed the caps on the counter. "Actually, I'm looking for someone. Someone from the city, a man in a checkered coat. Did anyone like that pass through here?"

She sighed. "Yeah, I remember him. Typical city boy, thought he was so much better than everyone. He and some of those Khans passed through here a while ago."

I frowned. "Did they talk to you? Did any of them mention where they were going or if they had any plans?"

She shook her head. "I'm afraid I haven't. But between you and me, our sniper, Manny, seemed to know some of the Khans."

I rubbed the back of my neck. "Where can I find this sniper?"

Livius was examining the dinosaur figurine that was on her desk. "Probably in the gecko's mouth. It is the highest building in the town."

She gave him a weird look. "Gecko?"

"He means the dinosaur."

"Oh." She laughed. "But you're right, he's up in the dinosaur's mouth if you need him."

"Thank you for your help."

"Anytime." She pushed some strands of gray hair out of her eyes. "My name's Jeannie May. Come by if you need anything else."

* * *

"Well if they're not around anymore, who cares if I don't know what they are?" Livius leaned against the railing of the motel balcony.

I jammed the key into the rusted lock. "Still, there's no excuse to not know what a dinosaur is." I pushed the door open and the hinges creaked. Oh god the room was air conditioned.

"Why are you giving me such a hard time about this?" He leaned forward towards the cooler air.

"Because one doesn't simply not know what a dinosaur is." I walked into the room and switched the lights on. I sighed and shed my bag off and threw it on the bed, the legs nearly buckled under the sudden weight.

Livius went straight to the fridge on the far side of the room and began sorting through it.

"It's stocked up on soda." He pulled out a couple bottles of Sunset Sarsaparilla, the glass bottles frosty from the temperature.

"Well at least they have the essentials." I sat down on the bed and picked up the felt teddy bear which was placed on top of the sheets. I flopped the creature's head back and forth for a bit.

Livius chugged half of one of the bottles. "Should we go talk to that sniper now?"

I collapsed on my back, the teddy bear laying on my face like a gecko. "Listen, I haven't slept in an actual bed since I was shot in the face. I want to savor this moment."

"Whatever you say."

The last thing I heard was Livius open another bottle of soda and then I fell asleep.

* * *

It felt like I slept for only ten minutes, but when I woke up it was night. I flung the teddy bear off of my face and sat up, fixing my glasses so they were on my face properly.

When my eyes focused, I saw Livius hunched over the dresser across the room and he appeared to be…writing something? Since he didn't know what a dinosaur was, I was actually surprised he could write.

Yes, I'm going to keep holding that against him. I mean, who doesn't know what a dinosaur is? His childhood must have _sucked_. Well, other than the whole "growing up amongst a bunch of slavers" part of his childhood.

"Livius?" I rubbed my eyes and tried to get back to my feet. The bed was too much comfort than I was prepared for; my bones felt like they were reduced to a paste.

Livius tensed up at my voice and slammed a small leather-bound book shut. "Oh, you're up?"

"What's that?" I dragged myself over to the dresser and looked over his shoulder.

"Just one of those comment books." He pushed his pencil to the side. "I was just checking to see if the people who we're searching for stayed here."

He was standing in a way that made it hard for me to get to the book, but fortunately he's a lot smaller than me so I was able to push him out of the way with very little effort on my part.

Only a few people left actual comments about the motel, but most of the book was filled with things like "POWDER GANGERS WERE HERE", "NCR AND PROUD", and "A member of the Followers of the Apocalypse is currently writing on this page. Have a nice day."

After a billion pages of that, I eventually found something that stood out. Almost filling up the entire page was a sketch of a half empty sarsaparilla bottle done in pen. The shading was rather messy (cross-hatching? I think that's what it's called), but it actually looked really good for a simple doodle in a comment book.

"Did you do this?" I looked over my shoulder at Livius who looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole and die. "What? It's good."

"The Legion has no use for activities like this, but I can't help it." He picked the pen up and twisted it around in his hands. "Don't see me any differently, though. I'm still a dangerous Legionary."

"I never saw you as a dangerous Legionary, don't worry." I adjusted my glasses and kept looking at the picture.

"I'm glad you un…hey!" He crossed his arms.

I chuckled a bit. "There's nothing wrong with drawing. I could never do something like this."

He scoffed. "It's not exactly useful to the Legion."

I shrugged. "Does it have to be?" I handed the book back to him. "Keep doing what you want. You found something you really enjoy doing; some people never find that."

Livius took the book back like I just handed him a thousand caps. There was a certain gleam in his eye, an excited gleam as if this idea hasn't even occurred to him. When I was his age, I was secretly drinking and experimenting with chems, while he's secretly…drawing? My parents would have killed to have this kid. Minus the Legion part.

"I usually draw landscapes. Let me show you." He plopped down on the bed and I sat down next to him. "Since I can't do it around the others, I usually have to sneak out to the river while no one else is bathing, swimming, or trying to escape. Then I just sketch the mountains." His pen began to give a few strokes on the paper. "I've done it so many times now, I can almost do it without reference."

I watched the desert landscape slowly come to life on the paper. It definitely took a different style of thinking, one I couldn't comprehend. Yes I knew what a mountain looked like, but how would I know to put that line there, or to make this line thicker than the other? Where did he learn to do this?

Livius was just about done adding the third crucifix to the background when the pen ran dry. He grumbled and slammed it against the book a few times, but it didn't work.

"Well there goes that drawing." He slumped his shoulders and ran the back of the pen over the half-finished drawing.

"It still looks really good." I kept my eyes on the page. "Maybe the front desk has another pen. I can go check."

Livius shrugged. "Alright, go ahead. I'm slowly losing faith in this picture, though."

"I'll try to hurry back then."

* * *

"Jeannie May?" I called through the door of the main office. It didn't look like anyone was inside, which made sense since it was probably after midnight by now. I let my hand fall on the door handle and I gave a little push. To my surprise, the door opened.

I opened the door as slowly as I could and stepped into the darkness.

"Jeannie May?" I closed the door behind me. "Is anyone there?"

No one responded and I flicked the lights on. The room looked deserted, but I walked in with a certain amount of hesitation just in case. One would think she would remember to lock the door.

Sure enough, there was a black pen like the one in the motel room on her desk. I picked it up and slipped it into my pocket, making a mental note to remember to return it to her the next morning.

I turned around to leave, but then something caught my eye. Behind the desk was a floor safe, its black metal surface gleaming in the light.

It was wrong, but my curiosity got the better of me. Taking one look over my shoulder to make sure no one was watching, then I made my way over to the safe.

"Come on, you're going to be unlocked for me too, right?" I pried at the safe door, but it didn't budge.

I sighed a bit and kept pulling, despite knowing that my efforts weren't going to do anything. Normally I would have used explosives to blow up the lock, but something caught my eye that ensured me that I wouldn't have to do that.

There was a box of bobby pins on the desk and even though it wasn't the best tool for picking a lock, it would be more effective than trying to open it with my bare hands. I haven't picked a lock since I was back in Tennessee; I have rather large hands and thick fingers that don't exactly lend themselves to delicate, intricate work.

I went through quite a few bobby pins since pretty much all of them would snap under my fingers, but finally I heard a small "click" from deep within the safe. I allowed myself to breathe again and I looked back over my shoulder to make sure I wasn't being watched.

The safe door creaked, but only slightly as I opened it. I don't really know what I was expecting. Jewels? Caps? Booze? There were some caps inside of the safe, but I didn't take any. Well, at least not all of them. But hidden in the depths was a slip of paper, folded up and worn down by time. I don't know if it was because I was curious or if after the robotics book I wanted to have a reputation as a paper thief, but I grabbed the paper and slipped it into my pocket and shut the safe door.

* * *

I was just about to make my way back to the motel room, but then the dinosaur stature caught my eye again. The sniper was probably still up there. I glanced back at the motel and shrugged, walking towards the dinosaur instead. Might as well get this out of the way.

A flimsy wooden staircase lead up to a door on the side of the dinosaur. The gods must have favored me because the door opened quite easily. For a town that was so worried that something was going to happen that they got a sniper, they sure liked keeping their doors open.

The belly of the dinosaur appeared to be a sort of gift shop, with little dinosaur and rocket figurines on display, but no one was working there. A staircase lead to another door which I assume lead to the mouth of the dinosaur. As I walked up the steps, I tried to figure out what I was going to say.

_"Hey, so I hear you were affiliated with some violent gangsters! How are you?"_

I opened the door and a man who was sitting near the edge of the mouth snapped his gaze over to me.

"Goddammit. Don't sneak up on me like that." His sunglasses were so dark I almost couldn't see his eyes behind them. I wondered why he was wearing them at night, especially since he was the sniper.

"Manny?" I closed the door behind my with my foot. He shook his head.

"No, you got the wrong guy. He's the daytime sniper."

"Oh." _I guess the idea of a 24 hour sniper is pretty stupid_. "Well, see you around."

"Wait." His voice didn't sound too urgent. In fact, it sounded a bit hesitant. "You're new here, aren't you?"

I removed my hand from the doorknob. "Yes?"

He adjusted his red beret. "Maybe you could help me. You have no connections with the town. Doesn't look like you're staying here long term."

"Whoa, whoa. If you're talking about assassination, well that really depends…"

"No, not like that. Well, not exactly." He took off his sunglasses. "The Legion took my wife while I was on duty. They didn't do anything else to the town, they didn't take anyone else, they just went straight to her. Someone set it up."

"So you want me to get your wife back?" I was sort of planning on going to the Legion camp to return Livius, but maybe I could find a way to sneak her out as well.

"She's dead. I want the son of a bitch who sold her."

"Oh." Despite what happened to my brother, I still didn't know what to say when dealing with grieving people. "Well, I'll see what I can do…?"

"Good." He slipped his beret off and handed it to me. "When you find them, bring them outside in front of the dinosaur and put the beret on as a signal. Bring them out at night; that's when I'm on duty."

I clutched the beret in my fist. "Alright, I'll try." I held my hand out. "I'm Celeste, by the way."

"Boone." He didn't take my hand and went back to patrolling the area around the town.

I stood there waiting with my hand out, before giving up and leaving the dinosaur.

* * *

I hardly said a word as I walked back to the motel and sat next to Livius on the bed. I handed him the pen and continued to stare blankly at the wall. It seemed like I always had to be reminded that Livius belonged to a group that ruined people's lives like this. It just didn't connect in my brain. Even through all of his Legion mumbo jumbo, I can't actually picture him being a true Legionary.

"Is something bothering you, _Amicus_?" He broke the silence and I flinched.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." I took off my glasses and rubbed my temples.

"Can I draw you?"

I pushed my glasses back on. "What?"

He shrugged. "I never had the opportunity to draw other people, since you're the only one who knows about this."

I stared blankly at him, but nodded.

He sketched out a few lines but I didn't look at the paper. I kept my eyes fixed on the window, the dinosaur looked like a shadow in the distance.

"You have a really wide mouth." The pen scratched against the paper as he spoke.

"I know."

"Like a really, _really_ wide mouth."

"Yes, I know!"

He tucked the pen into the spine of the notebook and looked back up at me. His hand gripped my cheek and he pushed my face around as if he was a scavenger examining a piece of scrap metal. I felt my entire body jolt.

"What are you…"

"I never touched another person's face before." He muttered, his green eyes deep in concentration.

His fingered tugged at my bangs, lifting them up and revealing my scar. My throat was dry. Not only did I hate being touched in general, but I was starting to see him differently. I had no idea the extent of what the Legion was capable of. If I knew, would I have helped him back in Goodsprings? No, what was I thinking? His Legionary status didn't define him and he was my friend. But the more I learned, after encountering Nipton and Boone, I didn't know how much longer I could keep this charade up.

He lifted my glasses off of my nose and I backed away. "I need to step outside for a moment." I stood up and made my way back to the door without looking back at him.

* * *

My feet tripped over each other as I scampered down the stairs. I slumped down next to the front office and stared up at the sky. Boone's beret was still in my pocket, but I didn't know how to start searching for whoever sold his wife. What, was I just supposed to knock on all of the doors at 2 in the morning and ask them?

Still, I had to hand it to him. Even after my brother died I didn't bother to seek out any revenge. I submitted to the enemy, and they're probably still out there right now. Was I a bad sister for not avenging him? I don't remember who did it exactly. I would have to hunt down every raider tribe in the Mojave.

I turned the beret around in my hands, the dim light made it look more orange than red. I dug my hand into my pocket and I felt the paper that I took from the safe. I placed the beret on my knee and unfolded the paper. The paper was torn in areas and the ink was smeared, but I managed to make out some of the text.

_"We, the representatives of…_blah-blah-blah_…have bargained and purchased from Jeannie May Rose…_yada-yada…_the ownership and sale of the slave Carla Boone for the price of one thousand bottle caps, and those for the price of her unborn child for five hundred bottle caps…_blah-blah-blah._"_

I felt my entire body go numb as I continued reading. The idea of someone being sold…not even captured. Anyone has the ability to turn another human being into an object, just with a little paperwork. I didn't care about motive. This isn't shooting someone in the heat of passion. Something like this takes work and effort. Selling someone into slavery isn't a spur of the moment, "whoopsie daisy!" type of thing.

My stomach tightened and I saw some glimpses of the sun peak over the mountains in the distance. I resisted the urge to tear the bill of sale up and I now had to face the issue of finding Jeannie May's house.

* * *

After a few failed attempts to find her house (my apologies to the people I woke up), I stood in front of one of the nicer homes in the town.

I knocked on the door hesitantly at first due to the previous failed attempts, then harder the next time. My fingers twisted around the brim of the beret in my pocket as I waited. The sun was going to rise soon; I didn't have much time.

The door opened and Jeannie May stood in the doorframe in a bathrobe and rubbing her eyes.

"Hm? Is something the matter?" She placed her glasses on her nose and squinted her eyes.

"Please, you have to come quick! My friend and I found someone wounded in front of the dinosaur, we need help. They said they knew you too." I bit my lip and hoped that she believed me.

She just stared at me for a while, then she sighed. "Alright. I'll come check it out."

"Thank you so much!"

* * *

I had to constantly slow down to wait for Jeannie to catch up to me, but we eventually made it to the front of the dinosaur. Of course no one was there, so I had to play dumb. I got down on my knees like I expected them to be hiding under the rocks.

"What? Where did they go? They were just here!" I dug my fingernails into the dirt. "They were taken by raiders. I just know it!"

Jeannie gave a frustrated sigh. "I don't know what to tell you. If they were taken, our sniper would have spotted them."

_Yeah I probably should have thought this bluff through._

She turned to leave and I went with plan B.

I fell over on my side and clutched my knee. "Ow!"

Jeannie May stopped. "Are you okay?" She walked over and offered her hand to me.

I pushed myself up in an exaggerated movement, falling over a few times and gripping my knee. "I hurt my knee on the way here." I said through gritted teeth. "I didn't think it was a big deal."

My bluff appeared to be working since she looked genuinely concerned.

"Oh. Well do you need anything else?"

I "struggled" to catch my breath. "Just…stay here. In case I can't make it back on my own." I pulled the beret out of my pocket and placed it on my head.

"Of course…" she looked at the beret. "Is that_"

Before she could finish her sentence, her head pretty much exploded, her body slamming back and slamming against the ground. I jumped back as the blood splattered over me.

"Holy fucking shit!" I tried to regain my balance and I wiped the specks of blood off of my glasses. How could he possibly make that shot? I couldn't even make that shot in the light!

I pulled the beret off of my head and looked down at my clothing. The slight splattering of fresh blood did seem to blend in with the rest of the blood stains I managed to collect over time, so hopefully I wouldn't have to explain anything to Livius. I stuffed the beret back into my pocket and walked back into the town, trying not to look at the corpse.

* * *

Walking back to the dinosaur and up the stairs was a blur, but it felt like the beret and the bill of sale were weighing me down. I stepped out onto the dinosaur's mouth and handed the beret back to Boone.

"Well that's taken care of." He slipped the beret back onto his head. "But I have to ask something: how…how did you know?"

"I found the bill of sale." I pulled the paper out of my pocket and gave it to him.

"Of course they kept the paperwork…" his eyes skimmed over the bill and I looked away. I heard him sigh and the bill fluttered to the floor by our feet. "I guess I owe you a thanks."

I shrugged. "I did what I had to do."

Boone nodded. "I'm not entirely sure what to do now. I never thought this would actually…" his voice trailed off.

"You can't stay here?"

He turned his head and looked out of the dinosaur's mouth. "It's a small town; word gets around fast. Maybe now I can go after those Legion bastards. Put an end to this once and for all."

I felt my entire body tense up and my face paled. "Well I wish you good luck with that! I mean, uh, if you could make a shot like that, I'm sure you can get every one of them." I forced a smile.

He turned away. "Yeah. Sure."

* * *

I walked into the motel room and found Livius curled up in a ball on the bed. I sighed and paced around the room for a bit, but something on the dresser caught my eye. It was a sheet of paper which was torn out of the comment book, but in the dark I couldn't see it very well. Staying true to my paper-stealing trend, I grabbed the paper and walked into the bathroom to see it.

The door slammed behind me and the light flickered a few times before turning on properly. I slumped down in the rusty bathtub and examined the paper. It was the drawing of me Livius was working on before, but only in the jaw, the right eye, the mouth, and parts of the hair did it look like me. The rest of the face was drawn with teddy bear features; a button eye, a felt ear, a bow around my neck. In the corner in Livius' scratchy handwriting it said,

_"You left so I had to use the teddy bear as a reference."_

He drew a little happy face next to the note and I let my arm fall limp over the side of the bathtub, the drawing brushing against the tile floor.

And then…and then…I could feel my breath hitch and my eyes spill over.

I didn't cry when my brother was killed. I didn't even cry when I was shot. But here I was, crying because the closest thing I had to a friend in a while indirectly ruined countless lives.

And I'm protecting him because he made only mine more tolerable.


	7. Chapter 7

_"Amicus. Amicus _are you alright?" Livius' worried voice sounded like he was speaking through water.

Sleeping, or rather, passing out in the bathtub made it feel like my entire spine was smashed multiple times with a pick ax. My head throbbed, a thousand times worse than even my most excruciating hangovers. It didn't hurt as much as waking up in Goodsprings, but the nauseating feeling washing over me, the knots my stomach was forming that even the most talented surgeon couldn't untangle, physically I felt like I reached rock bottom.

But mentally…I don't know how but I somehow felt worse. I wanted to stay by Livius and protect him from the NCR and any others who would try to hurt him, but at the same time I wanted to kill him and the rest of the Legion for what they did.

My glasses were crooked on my face and my fingers gripped the sides of the bathtub as I tried and tried to push myself up. Livius placed one hand on my back and another on my shoulder to try to make the process easier, but I could barely feel his touch. He stepped back and looked at the ground. He bent over and picked up the drawing on the floor next to the tub.

"Did you…not like it?"

I fixed my glasses and swung my leg over the side of the tub, taking a while to try to stable myself.

"No…I liked it. I'm just sore from sleeping in the tub…" I nearly tumbled out of the bathtub but Livius managed to catch my fall.

"Why did you sleep in here?"

I managed to force a laugh. "I don't think our relationship reached the point where we can share a bed."

He shrugged. "I can fit in the tub easier than you. You could have moved me; I don't care."

"Thanks, kid." I pushed myself to my feet and balanced myself by placing one hand on the bathroom wall.

"We still have to talk to that sniper, if you're up for it."

"Sniper?" My eyes widened and I pushed myself closer to the wall. Livius looked puzzled.

"Yeah, Manny. Remember?"

"Oh right…" I rubbed my eye. "I think I can…I just need a moment to recover."

"Of course." Livius stepped out of the bathroom and when he was gone I slammed my forehead against the wall.

The scar was still sore.

* * *

After the night before, it felt weird walking up the dinosaur with Livius. Part of me felt bad for keeping so much behind his back; from Nipton to the encounter with Boone. I wanted to tell him, for just a tiny ounce of security. I know he's different from the rest of the Legion. Maybe he never tortured someone else, maybe he never even used a slave.

"Are you feeling any better, _Amicus_?" Livius stopped in front of the door of the dinosaur.

I avoided his eyes. "Yeah. I'm fine."

He still looked unsure, but he nodded and we stepped inside of the dinosaur.

The gift shop inside of the dinosaur's stomach seemed a lot less creepy when the lights were on. A man stood behind the counter, rearranging the dinosaur and rocket figurines.

"Ah, hello." He wiped off the counter with a rag. "Would you care for a dinosaur or rocket figurine?"

"Uh…" I glanced over at the staircase. "No thank you. We just need to talk to the sniper."

"Oh, of course." He sighed and pushed a model rocket to the side. "No one ever wants the dinosaurs."

Livius and I exchanged an odd look and we headed up the stairs in silence.

We stepped out onto the ledge of the dinosaur's mouth and I felt like the sun was punching me in the face again. I shielded my eyes and hunched over a bit. The sun was so bright the figure in front of me looked more like a silhouette, but I could see the basic shape on a beret on his head. I started to panic but then I noticed that this man was slightly smaller in build than Boone.

"Can I help you?"

In my current state I couldn't feel like I could form sentences more complicated than "hey…", but fortunately Livius covered for me.

"Yes, we're searching for a man in a checkered coat who came through town with some Khans." The way Livius spoke and stood, one would think he was a soldier addressing a general. "We heard that you know who they were and where they were going."

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't."

"Which one is it?" I could hear the impatience leaking out of Livius' tone.

Manny adjusted his beret. "Listen, you obviously need my help. Maybe there's a way you can help me. Think of it like a trade."

"Oh I'm so done with doing chores for snipers…"

I didn't realize I said it out loud until I saw Livius and Manny give me weird looks.

"Uh…it's an expression." _I guess that's my go-to excuse for everything._

Manny just shrugged, "I don't mind helping you, but first I have to ask; why are you going after them?"

"That's none of your business." Livius crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes.

Manny held his hands up "Hey, just curious. But onto the business at hand; Novac is a home to me, and I've lost many homes before. I would prefer to keep this place safe, but there are some issues the town is facing."

_Please tell me we're not fighting the Legion. Please tell me we're not fighting the Legion._

"The only resource we have here is junk, without it the people here wouldn't be able to trade." He wiped his brow. "We got most of it up the road from the old rocket test site, but recently some ghouls took it over, preventing us from getting in."

"Why don't you take care of them yourself?" Livius gave Manny a wary look.

Manny glanced out of the dinosaur's mouth for a moment. "Believe me, I would if I could. But I need to be here to protect the town."

"From what, ghouls?"

I saw Manny's jaw twitch slightly and I made a mental note to tell Livius to tone down the sass when making negotiations.

"Listen, I'm just trying to help, but you have the ability to help me and the town."

"You want us to clear out an entire building full of ghouls? How many are we even_"

"We'll do it." At this point I didn't even care. The test site could have been filled with radioactive deathclaws and I still would have done it; anything to distract myself.

"Great. It's hard to miss; just keep walking west until you see a giant rocket statue, or until you start getting swarmed by ghouls."

"Do ghouls even swarm?"

Manny frowned and thought for a minute. "Well you'll be finding that out before me. Good luck."

* * *

We barely stepped out of the town when Livius grabbed my arm.

"Are you sure you want to do this? You look like you're getting sick." His worried green eyes felt like a punch to the gut and I strained myself to avoid eye contact.

"Yes, I'm fine." I moved my arm out of his grasp.

"I'm just worried about you, _Amicus_." He paused. "You're the closest thing to an actual friend I ever had."

I felt a dropping sensation in my stomach and my throat tightened up. The most I could do was to give a stiff nod.

"Let's just try to get to the test site before it gets too hot."

He didn't respond, other than a small nod in return. We walked around the perimeter of the town in silence when Livius looked up at the dinosaur statue.

"Were they really that big?" He kept his eyes locked on the statue, his eyes somehow even more wide.

"Some were bigger." I dug my hands into my pockets and I kicked a rusted can to the side.

"Whoa…I can't believe something that big would just die like that."

I shrugged. "Size really has nothing to do with it; it's all about survival. Having arms so proportionally small is probably a huge disadvantage."

Livius looked at his own arms and I couldn't help but to smirk a bit.

"You're making fun of me."

"Sorry, kid." I wiped the dust off of my glasses, still smirking.

"You keep calling me 'kid'." Livius scuffed his feet a bit as he walked. "How old do you honestly think I am?"

I shrugged, I was always bad at guessing names.

"I don't know…sixteen? Seventeen?"

Livius sighed. "Everyone thinks that. I'm twenty one."

I stopped. "No, there's no way you're only seven years younger than me. You're…you have a child's eyes and…you're really skinny and you're short…"

His face flushed. "I'm actually taller than you."

"But there's no way you can drink!"

Livius looked disgusted. "In the Legion, we forbid people from taking part in harmful activities such as the consumption of chems or alcohol."

"Oh right, but crucifixions aren't harmful. Gotcha'."

Livius paled. "Let's just move on."

He started to walk away, but something on the ground caught his eye. Lying on the ground was a corpse, blood soaking into the thirsty ground. Her beige dress was splattered with crimson, her gray hair strewn out over her face. Pretty much half of her head was missing. Little shards of bone sticky with blood and swarming with ants and flies spread out around the body, basking in the sun.

Livius took out his machete and gently nudged the side of her face with that, as if the bits and pieces of her head scattered around wasn't enough to prove that she was dead. He glanced up at the dinosaur's mouth, his eyes widening slightly.

"This is the woman from the front desk…why would the sniper…?"

I felt like I drank a gallon of brahmin milk and then went out for a jog through the desert.

"Maybe the sniper mistook her for someone else…?"

Livius frowned and stood back up, dusting himself off.

"And so it goes. Let's try not to get distracted again; I don't feel comfortable standing in front of this statue."

I nodded stiffly and followed Livius down the path, all the while straining myself not to look back at the corpse.

* * *

On the walk over to the test site, I almost let my true feelings slip out at least three times. I don't know how much longer I could take this. My body began to sway as I walked, my head felt like it was about twenty times heavier. Livius kept handing me the canteen, but I wasn't thirsty and even if I was, I sure didn't notice it.

Eventually I couldn't take it anymore. My legs buckled and I collapsed on the side of the road, my arms barely managing to catch myself. With my wrists throbbing from the impact, I pressed my cheek against the rough asphalt. The street was so hot I thought my bare skin would stick to it, but I didn't care.

_"Amicus!"_ Livius knelt down and rolled me onto my back, placing a hand on my forehead. "Are you getting sick? I can take you back to the room." He shook his head. "I think this revenge plot is taking too much out of you."

My vision was blurry, my hearing muffled, but still I managed to choke out,

"No…not sick…"

Livius shook the canteen and sighed. "I'm afraid we don't have any water left. Maybe you're just dehydrated, I can go find some water if you want."

I shook my head, but even that made my ears ring and my head throb. "No…I'm fine…"

"Wait, I think I have what you need." He dug around in his pocket and pulled out a small brown bag. "This is healing powder. It should make you feel better."

I gave him a weird look. The corners of my eyes were darkening and above me I could see Livius open the bag and pour the chalky substance into my mouth. I gagged and coughed, it tasted like how sour milk smells. My instinct was to spit the revolting substance out, but Livius clasped his hand over my mouth before I was able to. I wondered how many other girls Livius did that exact thing to, but without the healing powder. I forced the thought out of my mind.

_Just try to forget that you're traveling with a possible rapist and slaver until you're able to walk again_.

When he finally removed his hand, I sat up and gave a series of heaving coughs.

"How do you feel?" Livius wiped his hand off.

I finally managed to stop coughing, my throat burned. "Well my mouth wasn't dry before, but now it is."

"Well at least you're able to sit up…?"

Apparently he spoke too soon because the second he said it, I fell back against the ground. Livius sighed.

"You need food or water. Stay there, I'll see if I can find something for you."

I continued to stare up at the brilliant blue sky and I could hear Livius run off. The healing powder was still stuck to my tongue and the back of my throat in a sticky paste. I wanted to cough or puke it up, but I couldn't find the strength to do so.

Eventually Livius came back with a purple fruit impaled on his machete, the juices dripping down the blade. He plucked some spines off of his shirt and knelt down next to me.

"I found a prickly pear fruit for you." He tried to shake the fruit off of the blade without touching it. "They have smaller spines which are harder to see, but I can cut it up for you."

"Thank…you…" My voice cracked slightly. Livius shook his head.

"No need for thanks, _Amicus_. It's been a while since you had a proper meal." He tried to pry the fruit off of the blade. He flinched and let a Latin curse slip from his lips.

"I have a small knife on my belt." I rolled over slightly so he could grab it. After pulling the remaining spines from his fingers, he unclipped the knife from my belt and began using it along with the machete to cut up the fruit.

"I accidentally got some sand in it, but hopefully not too much." The fruit fell open and he scooped up the pulpy substance inside. He held the sludge for a while, the juice dripping down his fingers. With a shrug, he pried my mouth back open with his other hand and let the fruit fall into my mouth.

I'll be honest, I was getting a bit sick of being hand-fed by a Legionary.

The fruit was very sweet, but also had a sour aftertaste. Overall it certainly wasn't awful and it helped wash away the disgusting taste of the healing powder, but I still felt like gagging. Fortunately Livius didn't cover my mouth this time and I managed to force the fruit down my throat.

I gasped for air, my entire face felt sticky from the fruit; I could feel the juice dripping into my hair as well. Livius looked slightly relieved and cleaned off the blades.

"I think you just needed some more sugar. You think you can stand now?"

The sun was practically blinding me now, all I wanted was to get out of the heat. I forced myself to stand and I saw that Livius' hands were stained purple from the fruit; I could only imagine what the rest of my face looked like.

With a few shaking steps, I wiped the sweat from my brow and took a deep breath.

"Let's try not to get distracted anymore." I brushed the sand off of my clothes.

Livius looked up at me, seeming unsure. I wasn't trying to be brave or whatever. I just needed to punch something moving now, and I didn't want that thing to be him.

* * *

The road suddenly sloped downwards and we were greeted with sweet, sweet shade. I gave a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from my brow.

"You seem to be feeling better." Livius gave the slightest hint of a smile.

I shrugged. "I don't even know what that was all about. And besides, we have a duty to carry out." I squinted my eyes and stared at the large building further down the hill. "I'm going to make a wild guess and say that's the testing site."

"What was your first hint? The giant rocket statue out front or the fact that this is probably the only building for miles around?"

I frowned. "Let's just keep moving."

"So have you ever even fought a ghoul before?"

"Feral or non-feral?"

"There's a difference?"

I sighed. "The creepy ones who start attacking you are feral. The creepy ones who will talk to you first are non-feral. And yes, I fought with both before, but the fight with the non-feral ghoul was just a simple brawl."

"Which one do you think we'll be facing today?" Livius looked up at the test site.

"Probably feral. It's actually been a while since I've seen a feral ghoul; I imagine they don't handle the heat all that well."

Livius twirled his machete around in his hand. "I fight ghouls all the time; feral or non-feral. As far as I'm concerned they all need to be taken care of, like any sort of pest."

"Yeah, that sounds like something an asshole would say."

Livius straightened "An asshole, or someone who is just trying to point society in the better direction, out of the clenched fist of chaos?"

"Definitely an asshole."

"Alright, fine." Livius stopped walking and faced me. "What are you planning on doing to help society, to make civilization whole again?"

"I don't know…" I rubbed the back of my sun burnt neck. "I mostly try to do my own thing, just try to survive. But I think for a better future we need stronger technology."

"Humph." Livius crossed his arms. "Technology will help us, obviously. Need I remind you it's because of technology that we ended up in this mess in the first place?"

"No, it was caused by assholes with power who had technology. Technology is the neutral party here."

Livius frowned. "I liked you better when you were barely able to talk and choking on healing powder."

I grinned back. "And I liked you better when you were unconscious and being chased by radscorpions."

He actually managed to smile in response, but it quickly faded and his eyes widened. I tilted my head to the side.

"What, what is it?"

"This is definitely the right place." He readied his machete. "We can discuss our moral differences after we take care of this."

"Right behind you."

We nodded at each other and charged head-on towards the ghouls; always a logical battle strategy. The ghouls immediately faced us, and let out a sort of high-pitched gargle from their mouths. Their bodies looked like skeletons dipped in wax, their cloudy gray eyes bulging out of what remained of their eye sockets.

Livius managed to slice one of the ghoul's necks before it managed to take a swing at him. I shot another ghoul between the eyes and another that lunged at me. Overall, not very taxing.

"You want to check out the inside of the building now?" Livius cleaned off the blade of his machete.

I nodded and clipped my pistol back to my belt, slipping my spiked knuckles back on.

_This is just what I needed._

* * *

We opened the door of the test site and Livius jumped back.

"Oh Mars, what is that?!"

Lying on the floor in front of us was a nightkin, it's large, bulky frame cracked the tile floor beneath it. Even though the creature was obviously dead, we stepped around it carefully as if it would suddenly jump up and eat is—which I don't doubt it had the ability to do, judging by its size.

The crackling sound of static filled the air and we prepared ourselves for another attack, but then a voice came on the intercom.

"Hey, smoothskin." The gravely sound of a ghoul's voice forced its way through the broken speakers. "You listening?"

Livius and I glanced at each other, then I shrugged and stepped over the nightkin to get to the intercom. I pressed my finger against the "Talk" button.

"Smoothskin here. Listening."

"Don't answer to 'Smoothskin'." Livius whispered to me. "It's not dignified!"

"Listen to me very closely, Smoothskin." Obviously the voice didn't hear Livius. "Take the door on the right, then keep going down the hall until you find the metal staircase, got it?"

I frowned. "Uh…who are you?"

"Who I am isn't important."

"It is if I'm taking orders from someone."

The ghoul didn't respond for a while.

"Just follow the instructions."

I could hear the microphone on the other side click off and the static in the room died down. With a shrug I turned back around to Livius.

"Did you catch any of that?"

Livius sighed. "Door on the right, down the hall, find the metal staircase."

"Thanks, kid." I pushed my glasses up and made my way to the door.

"I'm glad that you seem to be feeling better, but I would appreciate it if you stopped calling me 'kid'."

"What am I supposed to call you then?" I placed my hand on the cold, metal doorknob and the sound of multiple ghouls gargling echoed from the other side of the door.

Livius took out his machete. "Open it…very slowly…" he took a few steps back.

I nodded and stepped out of the way of the door, and opened it as slowly as I could. The hinges creaked, the hair-straightening sound of metal on metal joined the ghouls' gargling.

The door lead to a dark hallway which turned a corner that produced a dim light. The light from further down the hall projected the shadows of two feral ghouls on the wall. They let out another shriek and began turning the corner towards us. I readied my fists and prepared to charge after them, but Livius stopped me.

"Wait." He pointed to a rusted metal bear trap on the floor. "I want to see how this plays out."

Sure enough, two ghouls scampered towards us like roaches. I held my breath and prepared to pummel one of them with my fists in case Livius' plan didn't work.

One of the ghouls reached out to strike me, but the bear trap snapped around its ankle, the rusted teeth piercing the decaying flesh. The ghoul let out a shriek in pain and the other ghoul stopped running and stared at its buddy in confusion.

Without a moment of hesitation, Livius lunged at the two ghouls, slicing the one that was caught off guard and decapitating the one caught in the trap. The hallway was now warm and smelled like old, rotting meat.

"You think it's a good idea to kill these ghouls when we were given instructions from another ghoul?" I prodded one of the dead ghouls with my boot.

Livius tried to shake the blood off of his blade. "We're listening to the instructions from Manny. The ghoul on the intercom is just making that easier for us." He kicked the other ghoul to the side of the hall. "Come on, let's get moving."

* * *

Turns out feral ghouls did in fact swarm. Fortunately for us, we were never attacked by more than five at a time, but the simple act of just moving through the halls was like an uphill battle. Not that the ghouls were particularly powerful, but with the large numbers it was easy to miss one until it was right behind you.

Livius carved out the throat of one of the ghouls with his machete and I lodged my spiked knuckles in the cheek of another. By this point, the eye-watering stench of rotting flesh was impossible to handle and Livius and I were coated in blood from the ghouls. It seems that we can't go five minutes without being covered in it.

"You think that's all of them?" I knelt down on the ground and began rummaging through my bag.

Livius pulled the collar of his shirt over his nose to block out the smell. "I don't hear anymore…" he waited. "Yeah, I think that's it for now."

I gave a sigh of relief and pulled my gas mask out of my bag. Brushing the dust and sand off of the mask, I removed my glasses and stretched the heavy plastic over my head. Livius looked at me, stunned.

"What is that?!"

"It's a gas mask."

When Livius was still looking puzzled, I spoke louder.

"It's a gas mask!"

"I know, but how come you have one and I don't?" He pulled his shirt further up over his nose and kicked another ghoul away.

"Not my fault you didn't pack one!"

Livius frowned and began sorting through his own bag and retrieved his Legionary helmet and bandana.

"I guess whatever it takes to block out the smell." He tied his hair back and slipped the helmet on, tying the bandana around his mouth and nose.

I adjusted the gas mask so it sat more comfortably on my face. "Yeah, I bet we both smell absolutely lovely now."

Livius chuckled a bit. "Considering that we haven't interacted with fresh water for almost a month, I doubt this would make any difference."

We turned the corner and instead of the hallway continuing, it bled out into an immense warehouse. The walls and floors were made out of rusted metal, rickety-looking catwalks made out of grates crisscrossed across the room, forming into a staircase ascending up to an elevated room. And despite my gas mask which was built to keep out the fumes from toxic chemicals, even that couldn't block out the absolutely nauseating stench inside.

I could hear Livius gag behind me and he cupped his hand over his mouth and nose.

"This is revolting. I envy you so much right now." He motioned to my gas mask, his eyes watering.

"Hey, mine isn't doing me much good either." I knew my response was pointless, since he couldn't even hear me.

I placed one foot on the rusted platform leading to the center of the warehouse and the structure began to creak under my weight. My face was sweating like mad from behind the mask, my goggles fogging up from my steady breaths.

Livius tapped his foot impatiently behind me and I took a deep breath. I inched my way across the platform, each groan from the metal sent chills up my spine. Fortunately the platform was only a few feet above the ground so I wouldn't break my neck or something if it collapsed, but I didn't want to take any chances. Livius followed me and if he was bothered by the platform, he sure didn't show it.

Walking down the platform in the warehouse reminded me of the lab I used to work in, except a lot less clean and the room was a lot warmer and there were brahmin corpses laying around, yeah maybe it was nothing like my old lab. The worst part about the room (outside of the death catwalk) was definitely the temperature. The inside of my mask was slimy with sweat, and all the heat did was cook the brahmin and ghoul corpses lying around.

Livius swatted at a fly. "This place is revolting."

"Tell me about it." I stopped at the edge of the platform. A large chunk of the catwalk was ripped out, creating a large gap between us and the rest of the structure leading to the staircase. At least we weren't that high up. I was just about to step off of the platform, but Livius stopped me, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"And I thought your eyesight was bad without that silly mask on." He pointed to the floor between the two halves of the catwalk; the dull red glow of a frag mine was placed strategically in front of us and two metal bear traps on either side.

"There's a tripwire that triggers two shotguns." Livius knelt down at the jagged edge of the platform. "Obviously not done by a ghoul."

"Or at least by a _feral_ ghoul." I took a careful step to the edge. "What do we do then?"

Livius took a step back, his eyes fixed on the other side of the platform. "We jump."

I nearly fell off of the platform right there. "Wait, what?"

He gave me a funny look. "You got a better idea?"

"Well I'd prefer one that didn't involve me either setting off the traps, or goring myself on the edge of the platform if I fail."

"Jump really good." Livius gave himself a running start and leapt over the traps like a majestic bloatfly and landed perfectly poised on the other side.

If all Legionaries could do this, they should change the bull on their flag to a gazelle or a unicorn.

"It's not that hard." Livius called to me. "Just give yourself a good running start and do what I did."

"Easier said than done…" I muttered, still eyeing the traps. Okay, best case scenario I just set off the shotguns. I'm used to bullets anyway and that won't harm Livius. If I hit the bear traps, that won't kill me, but it certainly won't be fun. Trigger the mine and that won't only destroy me, but also Livius and the entire building. At least the ghouls will be taken care of.

_Whatever, I'll have more time to analyze this after I'm splattered to the warehouse floor_

I took a deep breath and ran to the other side of the platform. Here goes nothing…

Swallowing any sense of self-preservation I had left in me, I closed my eyes (not a bright idea) and ran as fast as I could and leapt into the air. If Livius looked like a gazelle as he jumped, I probably displayed all of the grace and beauty of a bighorner trying to do ballet dancing. But somehow, despite all the variables against me, I actually made it, except I crashed on top of Livius.

"I think…you went a bit overkill with the... running start…" He forced out, before wiggling out from under me.

I looked back over my shoulder at the other side. "Whoa…I really made that?"

Livius stood up, wincing a bit. "Yeah, yeah. We can celebrate later after we take care of the ghouls and I get my back fixed."

* * *

The idea of the entire warehouse floor being littered with traps only made the trip up the stairs even more nerve-wracking.

"You're being irrational. This structure won't break." He jumped a bit to prove his point but that only made me cringe harder.

" But now not only will we possibly die from impact, but we have the possibility of being blown up."

Livius just shook his head in response.

The staircase lead to a steel hallway overlooking the rest of the warehouse. And of course, there was a dead body greeting us right when we stepped on. Oh good, I was starting to get worried about the lack of corpses lately.

The corpse obviously belonged to a ghoul, but unlike the other ones which wore tattered shorts and tank tops, this one was dressed in a thick black robe. Some kind of energy weapon was in the creature's bony hands.

"Looks like the ghouls are doing a fine job killing themselves, maybe they don't need us." Livius nudged the corpse with his foot.

We stepped carefully through the suspended hallway, this structure somehow felt even less stable than the catwalk. There was a large metal door at the end of the hall with an intercom next to it. I frowned and pressed the "Talk" button.

"Okay, we did what you said."

"Alright, Smoothskin. We'll let you in."

There was a loud creaking and snapping sound from inside the door. I glanced over at Livius for a moment and pushed it open.

* * *

"Wow, you two are uglier than I thought." Despite the hoarse voice over the intercom, the man who greeted us on the other side of the door was not actually a ghoul, but just some average guy. He wore a simple white labcoat, not unlike the ones the scientists usually wore back at my old lab.

"Oh finally, another human." Livius gave a small sigh of relief.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Smoothskin." His lip twitched slightly from behind his dark mustache.

"Your skin looks pretty smooth to me." I pushed my glasses up. "How about you drop the ghoul shtick and tell us why you told us to come here?"

His eyes narrowed. "Your tricks won't work on me, Smoothskin. And I was instructed to bring you to Jason; he's upstairs."

The uninviting metal-plated walls and floors of the warehouse were swapped for just simple tile floors and plastered walls. A much less scary-looking staircase was directly in front of us, and occasionally a ghoul in a long dark robe would walk down. Livius would reach for his machete when one walked past, but I swatted his hand away.

Following the not-ghoul's instructions, we walked up the staircase and I entered Nirvana. The room was huge, almost as large as the warehouse, and lined from wall to wall with lab stations, microscopes, hot plates, incubators, even an eye-wash station. Hell, my old lab didn't even have an eye-wash station that looked that clean!

The ghouls in the black robes were looking through the microscopes, jotting down equations on the chalkboards, and swabbing substances onto the agar in petri dishes. Oh man, how and where can I sign up for this? Screw being in a hot shack, making psycho for junkies. I wanted to be in an air conditioned room with a cool robe and hanging out with these people.

Livius jabbed me in the side. "Stay focused. You can play with your little science toys when we're done here."

I stared at the lab equipment longingly. It's probably a good thing Livius was here with me to keep me on track. If I were alone, there would probably be a different outcome.

_"Sorry, Manny. The ghouls are still at the test site…and yeah I joined them."_

* * *

I've seen many strange things in the Mojave, but I never thought I would find myself sitting across from a neon green glowing ghoul in a rocket test site. At least I sat across from him. Livius stood further away at the far corner of the room, his entire body stiffening whenever the occasional ghoul would walk past.

"Hello, wanderer." Unlike the other ghouls, his voice was smooth and distorted, like he was speaking through a glass wall. "Are you here to assist us on the Great Journey?"

"Uh, what?" I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, I felt like I needed a radaway just for being in the same room as him.

Jason kept his eyes fixed on mine and even though I could almost feel the radiation seeping into my eyeballs, there was something strangely comforting about his presence. Well, as comforting as a glowing green ghoul can be.

"Unless the Great Journey involves everyone getting out of the test site, we're not interested." Livius made a slight motion towards the door, silently motioning for me to leave with him.

"Of course, wanderer. It can only be a sign of destiny that you were brought to us, to assist us on the Great Journey."

I glanced back at Livius and I shook my head. "I'm sorry, but we already have enough on our plate. Um…maybe some other wanderer can help you with your Big Departure?"

"Great Journey."

"Yeah, that."

Jason sighed. "But we've been waiting for so long for a wanderer to assist us on the Great Journey, and this is our chance. I promised my flock a better future, away from the prejudice and hatred. Isn't that what everyone deserves?"

I frowned. "Group meeting." I stood up and grabbed Livius' arm, pulling him into a corner away from Jason and the other ghouls.

"This is getting creepy." Livius whispered. "And I thought ghouls were creepy enough when they _didn't_ speak."

"Yeah, I admit I didn't expect to encounter ghoul cults and Great Journeys today. So, do you have a plan?"

Livius glanced back at Jason and the other ghouls for a moment. "I saw the explosives in your bag. I say we just obliterate the place and leave; it will get the job done a lot quicker."

"What?" I clutched the strap of my bag and shook my head. "Um, did you see that sexy laboratory in there? There's no way I'm destroying the place."

"Well we can't stop and do favors for everyone we meet. If you don't want to blow the place up, we can just slaughter all of them here and now." He ghosted his fingers along his machete.

"Also a bad idea. These ghouls aren't like the brainless blobs of flesh we've been fighting before. These ones have intelligence and they're probably armed."

Livius narrowed his eyes. "Alright, what do you suggest we do then?"

I sighed. "I say we just hear them out. They obviously don't want to be here either, what with their 'Great Journey' and all. We do what they want, the ghouls leave, and I have my own laboratory."

"You mean we tell Manny and we get the information necessary to find the man who shot you."

"Or that, yeah."

We stepped out from the corner and sat back down in front of Jason, Livius swallowed his pride.

"We're willing to assist you with the Great Journey."

* * *

**This chapter was going to have the entire Come Fly With Me quest, but oh god…this chapter would be so long…**

**Edit: Here's a little sketchdump of the story (http):/( art/Across-the-Red-Flag-Bearing-Sky-Sketch-Dump-39 2446975)**


	8. Chapter 8

Going through a door that has blood splattered on the surface is never a good idea, especially if it leads to a basement. My fingers traced along my pistol. I knew it was not a good idea to fire a gun in a small, enclosed area and I didn't want to waste the bullets, but I still had no idea what I was going up against.

_"My flock and I would have left a while ago, but the basement is overrun with demons."_

That's all Jason said: "Demons". We could be going against normal geckoes, we could be going against giant mutant deathclaws who like to wear people's faces as hats. Whatever it was, I hoped it was something I could easily use my knuckles against.

Somehow Livius was even more cautious than me, not even going within five feet of the door. He stood a bit further away from me, his hands clenched around the handle of his machete until his knuckles turned white.

"The door's not going to eat you." I smirked a bit at his reaction. "Let's just get this over with."

I reached out and opened the door, the hinges groaning. The door lead to a rickety metal staircase that descended further into the depths of the basement. I placed one foot on the first step, but frowned when I didn't hear Livius follow me.

"You're not going to help by just standing there." I snapped my fingers. "Come on."

Livius was somehow even more pale than usual. He shook his head and glanced away from the dark basement.

"How about I stay here in case one of the demons sneaks out?" He held his machete tighter.

I tilted my head to the side. "Livius…are you afraid of the dark or something?"

He scoffed. "We've been sleeping outdoors for almost a month now. I think I can handle the dark, thank you very much. Don't accuse me of things like that."

I glanced at the basement, then back at him. "Then get your ass into the basement."

Livius took a small step back. "It just looks a bit too…cramped. I make large movements with my weapon, I want to make sure I have enough room."

"Oh, so you're just claustrophobic?"

"Don't you dare accuse me of being a coward!" His outburst managed to echo through the basement despite being rather far away from it.

"It's not cowardice." I leaned against the wall. "Cowardice is not admitting to it…and not getting in the damn basement."

I kept pushing, but he stood his ground.

"I'm not going in there."

I gave an irritated sigh and closed the door. "Christ you're petty." I rubbed my eyes behind my glasses. "Maybe Jason can find something else for you to do; I'll take care of the demons."

Livius bit his lip and nodded, not saying a word.

When we stepped into the light, I could see that Livius' face was completely red. He kept his gaze away from mine and he remained silent.

"You okay?"

He exhaled sharply and looked away.

"I've never been so humiliated by one person in my entire life."

I couldn't help but to smirk a bit. "What, just because you're claustrophobic?"

Livius cringed. "You will not repeat that to anyone. First it was my art, and now this. You do realize you have the potential to ruin my reputation as a true Legionary." He kept his voice low, pausing whenever a ghoul walked past us.

I didn't say anything in response. Taking away his credit as a Legionary didn't really occur to me before, but now…was it horrible for me to even think that? I would enjoy his company so much more if my vision of him wasn't clouded by the smoke omitting from the burned remains of Nipton, or who knows how many other towns they destroyed. Does that say more about him, the Legion, or me?

For a while the only sounds were our footsteps and the occasional bits and pieces of chatter from the other ghouls. Jason was seated behind his desk, almost has if he was expecting us.

"Greetings, wanderers. Is it safe for my flock to go down into the basement now?"

"Uh, not exactly…" I rubbed the back of my neck. "You see…my friend, Levi, has so much confidence in my ability to take care of the…demons by myself, that he wanted to know if there was something else he could do to assist you in the Great Journey."

Livius' eye twitched.

Jason frowned.

"Wanderer, you do realize that even the strongest of my flock have not been able to face the demons."

"I have confidence she can do it." Livius kept his gaze steady on Jason, his tone never faltering. "In my years I have never met a more…capable and…strong…person." The way he spoke reminded me much of how he spoke about Caesar, except his tone was much more wooden.

"Your friend speaks highly of you, wanderer." He stood up. "And in fact, there is something he can do. To embark on the Great Journey, we need rocket fuel. If you can get your hands on some, it would be much appreciated."

"I know where to go. Thank you, Jason."

"No, thank you, wanderers. For without your kindness and generosity, our flock could not embark on the Great Journey."

We left Jason's office and I heard Livius mutter under his breath,

"We should have just slaughtered them all. It would save us so much time."

I didn't bother responding to that. Letting my bag slip off of my shoulder, I reached inside and pulled out the bag of caps Ringo gave me back in Goodsprings.

"There should be about 150 caps in there…maybe you can get at least a little bit of rocket fuel for that."

Livius seemed skeptical, but he took the money and ran off. I didn't know how, but I could sense that he was eager to get away from me. I couldn't blame him and I can't say I didn't feel the same way.

I kicked the basement door open and stepped down the metal stairs, my fists out and ready for attack.

"Hello?" I kicked the metal plated sides of the hallway. "Any demons in here?"

The air was heavy with silence except for my footsteps and my voice echoing through the basement. I came to a halt and waited, waited for something to appear.

"Looks like those ghouls have been hanging around radiation for too long." I turned around to leave, only to stop again. Sweat formed along my hairline. I couldn't explain it, but I could almost sense something large and bulky standing behind me.

_Shit._

An ear-piercing roar erupted from whatever was standing behind me and I instinctively jumped out of the way. My ears were invaded by the sound of something smashing against metal and I just knew that whatever this was, spiked knuckles could not defend myself against it.

I fell on my back with a thud and looked up. Standing at about 8 feet high was the bulky form of a nightkin, a makeshift hammer fashioned out of concrete and metal pipes in its hands, ready for attack.

My eyes widened and I rolled out of the way, the hammer crashing down where I was previously laying. The nightkin took a moment to register what just happened, but it wasn't enough time for me to figure out a plan.

The nightkin's beady eyes locked on me; there was nowhere else I could go without becoming a smear on the basement wall. The creature drew its weapon back to attack and I unclipped my pistol.

The deafening sound of the gunshot made my ears ring and my whole body flinch, soon followed by the equally loud sound of the nightkin roaring in pain. My eyes widened when I realized I actually made a dent on this massive thing.

The nightkin was hobbling a bit, dropping the hammer and clutching its bleeding leg. I saw my chance.

Without taking another moment to rethink my options, I aimed my pistol up at its head. The roaring came to a stop. The nightkin fell with a thud, the metal denting at the impact. My breathing was heavy, my entire face was drenched with sweat. Somehow I was not mashed to a bloody pulp by that thing, but still it only took one nightkin for me to waste all of my energy. Who knows how many of those I would have to fight.

I stepped over the creature's body, keeping my eyes on it in case it wasn't actually dead. The hammer was laying next to the corpse and I knelt down next to it. The weapon was at least as long as my legs and made out of iron and concrete. I shuddered when I thought of what this thing would do to me.

I wrapped my hands around the hammer and hoisted it up.

"Holy shit this is heavy." Every time I tried to hold it above my head like the nightkin did, it only smashed against the floor. The only way I could possibly carry it was to simply drag it around the basement. Oh well, at least it wouldn't make me deaf like the gun.

The hammer made an eardrum-shredding scraping sound as I dragged it across the metal floor. The nightkin would just appear out of nowhere, sometimes two or three at once. Somehow I managed to make it through most of the basement without having the nightkin's hammers mash my brain into a pulp, but simply the sound the weapon made when it smashed against the walls or the floor was enough for me.

My teeth ground together as I lifted the hammer over my head and smashed it against another nightkin. My arms were sore from the weapon and my breathing was heavy. I let the hammer slip out of my hands and fall to the floor.

"That should be all of them…" I stayed still, my fingers on my rifle. No nightkin randomly materialized behind me, that's a good sign.

I kicked the nightkin corpses to the side to make room in the hall and began to make my way back out of the basement. My arms felt like they were made out of jelly and my ears were still ringing. Why is it that every time I'm assigned to run into a room and kill things, Livius isn't there to help me? He was right; slaughtering all of the ghouls would have been easier.

_Oh right, Livius_.

"What the hell am I going to do with that kid?" I muttered, leaning against the wall to rest for a bit. The plan was originally going to end with me returning Livius back to the Legion, but then wouldn't I just be feeding into the problem? But on the other hand, it's his home and what's one more Legionary going to do? I hate moral dilemmas that I can't solve by hitting things.

Somewhere on the trip back to the main room of the test site, I accidentally took a wrong turn because somehow, I found myself in an office with one of the largest nightkin I've seen so far. Instead of the clubs that the other nightkin had, this one had a rather large sword that was strapped to his back. Before I could slip away, the creature locked eyes with me and I felt my entire body freeze up.

"Uh, hello there." I took a small step back towards the door. "I was just leaving…"

"Antler tells me you're the human who killed my troops." His loud, gravelly voice boomed throughout the room.

"What?! No I would never…who's Antler?"

"Who is Antler? Who is _Antler_?!" he was practically screaming at this point. "Antler, the human asks about you. What should I tell them?"

There was no response, but apparently that didn't matter to the nightkin.

"Hm? Yes, yes, of course. Who Antler is, is not important to you. You will deal with me."

I looked around the room, but I couldn't find anyone that the nightkin could have been talking to. But I did notice that whenever he addressed this "Antler", his eyes fell on a polished brahmin skull on the desk.

"Is Antler that skull, or something?"

"Cut that out, human. Final warning."

"No seriously, you really seem to like that skull." Keeping my eyes on the nightkin, I slowly made my way over to the desk.

"Antler is demanding you step away!"

All while maintaining eye contact with the nightkin, I picked up the brahmin skull and simply dropped it on the ground. The skull hit the ground with a _crack!_, one of its horns snapping off.

"Human! You will pay for what you've done to my troop and Antler!" He raised his sword and swung.

_Shit, this was a stupid idea!_

I dove out of the way, jumping behind the desk. The sword smashed against the wood and the skull was pushed to the other side of the room. Before the nightkin could attack again, I crawled over to it.

"Attack me again and Antler gets it!" I pulled out my pistol and pressed it against the side of the skull. Okay, this was probably the weirdest thing I've ever done.

"Antler demands you put him down!" Still, the nightkin raised his sword.

"Oh, how about Antler tells me that himself?" I pressed the gun harder.

The nightkin was silent, narrowing his eyes at me.

"Antler are you…your bravery is honorable." He charged at me. "For the nightkin!"

"Wait, what?!" I held the skull tighter and ducked, the nightkin's sword imbedding in the wall behind me.

I rolled out of the way while the nightkin struggled to pull his sword back out of the wall. Taking a deep breath, I drew my pistol and shot the nightkin a few times in the side.

The nightkin roared in pain and stumbled a bit. I didn't know how much ammo I had left, but I kept shooting the nightkin until his body fell over and stopped moving.

I managed to catch my breath and I clipped my pistol back to my belt. The skull was still tucked under my other arm and I looked at it for a moment.

"Alright, Antler. Welcome to the team."

* * *

My arms still ached as I made my way back out of the basement. The ghouls all gave me weird looks, and considering that I just came out of a basement with ripped clothes, an overall frenzied look, and a brahmin skull tucked under my arm, I didn't blame them.

"Your friend's over there." A ghoul gestured to the corner of the lab.

Livius was sitting in the corner, resting his head against the wall and looking very exhausted overall. When he noticed me, he sat up a bit and gave me a little wave.

"Oh good, you survived the demons."

"Yeah, I'm surprised too. Did you get the supplies?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I got the fuel and the modules." He groaned a bit. "It was a pain to carry back, though." His eyes fell on the skull in my arms. "What's that?"

"This is Antler." I tossed the skull around in my hands. "He's our new friend."

"He's missing a horn."

"Well no one's perfect." I tucked the skull back under my arm. "Still, I'm surprised you were able to afford all of that with what I gave you."

He smiled a bit. "What can I say? I'm very diplomatic."

I smirked a bit in response, but then I saw something on his sleeve; blood. That certainly wasn't there before and it looked fresh.

Livius noticed that I was staring and he rolled his sleeve up to cover the blood. "Okay, it's all clear. Let's go talk to Jason." He stood up rather stiffly and didn't bother to make eye contact with me.

My body froze and I knelt down next to his bag which he left in the corner. I looked over my shoulder to make sure no one was looking, and I pulled his machete out. The blade was cleaned, but it was obvious it was previously in use. The weapon was warm and it smelled like blood. There was also blood splattered on his Legion uniform, which he didn't bother to clean off.

I gasped and I closed the bag. I felt sick and shaken. How could I have possible thought he was somehow different? He was no different from the other Legionaries who raided Nipton or forced the sniper's wife into slavery.

I followed Livius back to Jason's office, all while trying to avoid looking at him.

"Hello, wanderers. Is it safe for us to embark on the Great Journey?"

We nodded stiffly, still avoiding eye contact with each other. Jason stood up.

"I will lead my flock to the rockets, but we will need you two to launch them. Thank you, wanderers. We couldn't have done this without you."

Livius and I didn't say anything, instead we watched Jason leave his office, soon followed by the rest of his "flock". Every once in a while, a ghoul would yell something about the Great Journey. Considering the awkward silence that Livius and I built up, I wished I could join them.

He opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by Jason's voice crackling over the intercom.

_"Gather, all. May the Creator guide my words and help me speak true…"_

"We should probably go launch those rockets." I kept my eyes fixed on the door in which Jason walked out of. Livius just stood up and walked away. I followed him reluctantly.

The silence between us was almost unbearable, but fortunately Jason's voice over the intercom helped fill the void.

_"…The time has come for us to board the rockets and begin the Great Journey."_

I pocketed some of the smaller pieces of lab equipment I could get my hands on as we left the lab, stepping back into the metal room. The door to the basement was left open and Livius turned his head from it.

_"…Although it may seem that all humans despise us, the Creator had seen it fit toinstruct us differently. The Great Journey would have been impossible, if not for the intercession of three human friends."_

I felt my body tense up as I followed Livius to the launch center.

"Have you ever…launched a rocket before?"

Livius gave me a quizzical look, and continued walking.

_"…The Great Journey awaits. To the Promised Land we go."_

The cool night air greeted us as we stepped out onto the launch pad, I nearly forgot how long we've been out. I sat down in front of the controls and tried to figure out what the hell I was doing. Livius just stood by the railing, watching me.

"Okay, something's wrong with you."

"What?!" I turned around from the controls. "Something's wrong with _me_?!"

He nodded. "You've been acting weird. Something's wrong."

I slammed down some random controls, hoping they would work.

"Oh, maybe it's because I'm traveling with a psycho murderer. Maybe that's why!"

Livius looked genuinely hurt, but I didn't care.

"What are you talking about?! If anything, you killed more people since we've started traveling than me!"

The platform began to shake, but I barely noticed.

"I encountered the Legion in Nipton. If that's normal for you people then, yes, you _are_ a psycho!"

Livius gripped the railing. "Well they were probably degenerates who deserved it!"

"You kidnapped a man's wife and tried to sell her into slavery!"

He gave me a quizzical look. "What, did you _now_ find out that the Legion uses slaves? Wow, no wonder your skull was so thick to block that bullet."

I couldn't take it anymore. Stepping forward, I reached out and I grabbed a fistful of the front of his shirt.

"Stop acting like you're somehow morally above me. I know you murdered whoever sold you the rocket fuel. I saw the blood on your uniform.

A certain gleam flashed across his eyes.

"You know what?! Yes, I did kill her. She refused to lower the price, I changed into my uniform and I slit her throat. And also, I enjoyed it! I enjoyed every moment of it!"

I began to shake him. "Do you even hear what you're saying?! Does this sound sensible to you?!"

"Listen, I'm doing what I can for the plan. And don't act like you've never done anything like that in your life!"

"Well compared to you, I'm a fucking saint!"

He reached out and gripped my collar as well.

"You develop chems." He spat. "You like to pretend that you are somehow benefiting society with your 'science' and 'technology', but every junkie who had their lives destroyed, every home that was broken because of chems, that was _your_ fault."

"Well at least I didn't slit their throats!"

"At least that would have been a quick death!"

Before I could respond, the ground began to shake harder and our ears were filled with the sound of an earth-shattering explosion. I squeezed my eyes shut and instinctively bowed my head down and knelt to the ground.

The rumbling stopped and the sounds died down. I opened my eyes. Livius and I were still clinging to each other. His head was facing downwards and was tucked under my chin. One of his hands was clinging to my shirt collar and the other was gripping my shoulder.

He slowly looked up at me, his face completely free of emotion.

"Are you okay?"

I bit my lip.

"Yeah, I think so."

I helped him up and we stood by the railing of the launch pad. A trail of smoke was omitting from the main room of the rocket test site. I gave a small sigh of relief, but sucked it back in when I saw large scraps of metal fall from the sky; rocket parts.

Livius watched with me, his expression completely blank.

"At least we…" He stopped himself, as if wishing to return to the silence.

I nodded and pushed my bangs back. I glanced at him through the corner of my eye and gave him a gentle punch in the arm. He stumbled a bit shocked at first, then he smirked back and returned the gesture.


	9. Chapter 9

The sun was still down by the time we got back to Novac, so we planned to talk to Manny again the next morning. Livius collapsed on the bed, curling up in a ball. I placed Antler on the dresser then sat down on the floor by the foot of the bed, twisting my fingers together and staring down at the floor.

"Are…are you still going to help me find the man who shot me?" I felt nervous breaking the silence like this, but anything would have been better than the tension that was built up.

"Yes." The blankets rustled behind me. "Are you still going to help me get back home?"

I stared down blankly at the floor. "I don't know."

Livius didn't respond. I got up and sat down on the corner of the bed, Livius was still curled up on the other side.

"You okay, kid?"

"I don't know." He sighed and rolled onto his back. "I suppose that if I want to continue traveling with you…I should apologize."

I raised an eyebrow. "Apologizing for being a psycho murderer?"

He frowned. "I mean apologize for what I said to you back there." He pushed his hair back. "I'm not apologizing for who I am, or what you think I am."

I scooted back and rested my head against the wall. "I suppose I should apologize too. If I'm going to travel with anyone, I would prefer to travel with someone who won't try to kill me."

Livius smirked. "No matter how mad you make me, I would never kill you, _Amicus_."

"Well I'm glad to know that the feeling is mutual." I rubbed my eyes behind my glasses. "I wish I didn't say all of that. You're really the first person I've considered a friend in a while. Before I only had my brother."

"How long have you been thinking that? The things you said to me."

I sighed. "It's….been a while, actually. It really all started when I saw the remains of Nipton. You're the only Legionary I've ever met before then, so seeing more of them and what they were capable of…it was definitely sobering, to say the least."

"Who lead the raid?" Livius rolled onto his side and looked up at me.

I shrugged. "Creepy pale guy, dog on his head. Kind of talks _like this_." I raised my voice to be almost comically high.

Livius' jaw dropped. "You met Vulpes Inculta?!"

"Uh, yeah, I think that's what his name was."

Livius sat up in the bed. "I can't believe you met him! He's the head of the _Frumentarii_!"

"So I've heard." I leaned back against the wall. "I take it you admire him?"

"Why wouldn't I? He helped lead the Legion into victory more times than I can count, hand-picked by Caesar to not only be a _Frumentarius_, but the head of them!"

"He also crucified and tortured a town full of innocent people."

"I know! He's incredible!"

I scoffed and flopped back down on the bed. "Whatever, I don't think that your little crush and I hit it off very well when we first met."

"What are you insinuating?" He crossed his arms.

I just smirked. "Goodnight, Livius. Oh, and I call the bed; I did have to clear out a basement of demons."

Livius shrugged and pulled the blankets off of the bed. "So if I'm sleeping on the floor, I get the blankets."

"Oh, so that's how it works?"

He smiled and wrapped himself up in the blankets and plopped on the ground. "Hey, you get the mattress. It's only fair."

I laughed a bit and sprawled out on the bed. "Despite what I said, I hope you know I appreciate having you here."

"Likewise."

The room was silent for a while so I assumed Livius fell asleep, but then he broke the silence.

"How did your brother die?"

"Where did that come from?"

"I don't know…." Livius' words came out slowly. "Just curious."

I sighed. "Raiders invaded our clinic. He died because he didn't know how to fight or develop chems."

"So you surrendered?"

I shrugged. "I guess you can put it like that, but I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to stay alive, even if you have to make psycho for the people who killed your brother." I rubbed my temples. "It's ironic. Theodore was inarguably the better sibling, actually saved people's lives and shit. Meanwhile I create substances that kill people and ruin their lives, and I get to live."

"Do you wish you died instead of him?"

I let a shaking sigh slowly escape my lips. "I…I don't know. I mean I know it's probably the right thing to say…but I still want to live." I shook my head. "Can we change the subject?"

"Sure." Livius took a deep breath. "You didn't tell Vulpes about my art, did you?"

I shook my head. "Nah, it really didn't come up in conversation. If I run into him again, I can tell him for you. Maybe you can paint a pretty portrait of him."

"I see you're still not done mocking me."

I shrugged, my face breaking into a wide grin. "If I'm not allowed to be angry at you for being a Legionary, then I'm allowed to mock you."

"You have a very warped idea of justice."

"As do you, my friend."

I heard Livius laugh a bit from the floor.

"Goodnight, _Amicus_."

"Night, kid."

* * *

The motel room was stocked with various sodas and candies, but no real food. While Livius cleared out most of the soda, we tried to avoid the junk food as best as we could. But considering that by that point we haven't had a proper meal in a while, we finally surrendered. In a movement of absolute genius on my part, we mixed everything together in a bowl: a box of Sugar Bombs, two boxes of Cram, three boxes of Dandy Boy Apples, a few gum drops, and mixed with a bottle of Sunset Sarsaparilla until it formed into a sticky, gelatinous, and overall disgusting paste. Since the Death Paste was made out of the rest of our food, we had no choice but to eat it.

"We shouldn't have added the Cram." Livius twirled the brown-ish substance with his fork.

"I feel like my teeth are rotting." I pushed a clump of apple to the side. "The six-year-old me would have loved this."

"Part of the 21-year-old me is loving this, but the meat throws it off a bit." He forced down another forkful. "I always had a sweet tooth. When I was younger I would get in trouble for taking soda from the older Legionaries."

I laughed a bit. "It's really hard for me to imagine a kid Legionary."

Livius shrugged. "Well they don't leave the camps, but there are children who are training to be a true Legionary. I was born in a camp so I was one of them."

"What, do they have little uniforms too?" I pushed my bowl of Death Paste to the side.

"Yeah, they do."

"I don't know whether that's cute, terrifying, or creepy."

"They may be 'cute', but they're still warriors; don't forget that."

"I'll keep that in mind." I stood up and stretched. "We should go talk to Manny now. Christ, it feels like it's been forever since we last spoke to him."

Livius looked at my bowl of Death Paste. "You gonna finish that?"

I pushed it towards him. "Be my guest. But eat quickly, I hope to hit the road right after we talk to Manny."

Livius proceeded to devour his bowl of Death Paste. "You sure we're not on a wild bloatfly chase?"

"Goose. A wild goose chase."

"What the hell is a goose?"

"I don't know, it's just a saying."

Livius set the bowl to the side. "I'm just saying, we've been out for about a month, going from town to town trying to find the guy who shot you. By now he probably got a warning that there are people after him. He could be on the other side of the Mojave by now."

"Well then we'll chase him to the other side of the Mojave." I stood up and began stuffing all of my things into my bag. "If you're done eating, let's get moving."

* * *

We stepped into the main room of the dinosaur, refusing once again to buy a figurine, and headed up the stairs to the dinosaur's mouth. Manny stood there by the teeth, looking over the endless wasteland of the Mojave.

"Manny."

Manny looked over his shoulder. "Oh hey, it's you." He turned around. "Did you take care of the ghouls?"

I nodded. "The ghouls will no longer be a problem."

"Excellent, excellent." He tipped his beret. "I won't say I doubted you, but thank you so much for this."

"Now." Livius stepped forward. "About the man we're looking for."

"Oh, right." Manny adjusted his collar. "The Vegas man and the Khans came in here a while ago. The Khans mentioned something about going to Boulder City."

"Did they say anything else?" That was definitely not enough information considering what I had to go through to get it. "Any motives, anything else you heard?"

"Can't say I have, unfortunately. But at least you know where to go next if you're still chasing them."

I gave a frustrated sigh and left Livius to take care of the rest.

"Where is Boulder City?" He took out the map he scribbled down on a napkin back in Primm. "Where in relation to these locations is it?"

Manny stared at the lines and boxes (all unlabeled) with a confused look. "How about I just give you the directions?"

…

"You know," Livius tossed Antler in his hands as we headed down the road. "This Boulder City is actually really close to the Hoover Dam."

"Your point?"

"We could sneak in, take out the NCR guards, and take the dam in the name of the Legion."

"You could do that on your off days. But right now, I want to have as little people coming after me as possible."

Livius sighed. "You're no fun."

"Hey, I may be taking you to Vegas. No complaining."

We walked in silence for a while, before Livius eventually broke it again.

"We need a pack brahmin, or maybe a slave. I'm getting tired of walking."

"I'll carry you if you want."

Livius laughed a bit. "Tempting, but I think you took away enough of my dignity."

I smirked and shielded my eyes from the sun. A bit further down the road, a small, dusty town was basking in the intense heat and right in front of the entrance, a familiar flag waved in the light breeze.

"We got NCR again." I glanced back at Livius. "You're not going to freak out again, are you?"

Livius sighed. "I think I can handle it. But if they try anything, I won't hesitate to attack."

"Sounds fair to me."

* * *

Boulder City reminded me of Primm. Unlike other small towns like Goodsprings, this one had actual roads and not everything was coated in sand and dust. But some of the buildings were nothing more than just rubble, almost as if a bomb was set off in the town.

"Must be an NCR thing." Livius examined a heap of the rubble, kicking a piece to the side.

"Hey, what your buddies did in Nipton was a lot worse than this."

Livius shrugged. "At least we don't advertise ourselves as being holier than thou saviors of the wasteland, when in reality we can't do everything we claim."

I just stared at Livius blankly and he gave me a weird look.

"What?"

"Do you even…hear what you're saying?"

Livius sighed. "Let's not get into this again. How about we find these Khans of yours and move on?"

"Sounds good to me."

We stepped through the crumbling city until we found a gated off section, an NCR man was standing by the front entrance.

"I don't know what business you have here." He adjusted his stance so he was standing right in front of the gate. "But we're in a really delicate situation right now with the Great Khans."

"We have business with the Khans." I tried to keep my voice level. "If you just let us slip in for a bit, we'll be gone before you know it."

The NCR man raised an eyebrow. "Business? What kind of business?"

I glanced back at Livius and stepped forward. "The Khans have information that I need. I promise we won't ruin anything. We're just planning on slipping in and then slipping out."

The NCR man seemed skeptical and I could sense Livius tensing up behind me.

"All right…I'll let you in. But I'm sending in more reinforcements the moment I hear gun shots."

He moved to the side and opened the gate, allowing Livius and me to go inside. I silently thanked him while Livius dashed through, obviously eager to get away from the NCR man.

The tension on the other side was so thick, it could have been cut with a knife. Rows of NCR troopers were in position, their pistols bobbing from their shaking hands. They flinched when we walked past, but I just waved and dragged Livius away by the collar.

"I want to leave here with as little trouble as I can." I whispered.

"Hey, I think we're on the same page. Let go of me."

The other side of the road had Khans in position in much the same way as the NCR and it did feel kind of badass to walk between two groups of people pointing firearms at each other. We stepped past the Khans to the building they seemed to be guarding. They gave us strange looks but they didn't attack, knowing that just one gunshot would provoke the rest of the NCR.

I opened the door and I immediately knew I came to the right place. We entered what appeared to be an old, abandoned shop and standing behind the counter were two Khans, one of the Khans I distinctively remember standing above me with a shovel.

"What the…" The Khan looked up at me, eyes widened. "You're the chick Benny wasted. How are you even…alive?"

I shrugged. "I got better."

"And I thought us Khans were hard to kill." He took a step back. "Is this some kind of revenge scheme? Because we're kind of busy."

"Well, yes and no." I approached the counter. "Considering I was shot in the head, it's probably obvious that I have a few questions."

"Okay…like what?"

"Well for one, why was I shot in the head?"

"I don't know all of the details, but apparently you were delivering something that Benny wanted—something important."

I tilted my head to the side. "Psycho, hydra, and a few bottles of Buffout?"

He shook his head. "No, there was another item smuggled into your little care package. I think it was a platinum poker chip, or something."

I could remember things a bit clearly now. Seconds before my brain became better acquainted with a bullet, Benny stood above my body, which was tied up with ropes. He pulled a cigarette out of his mouth (which he took from _my_ box of smokes, by the way) and said something, but I couldn't remember what it was; it wasn't like I was able to hear back then either. Benny reached into his pocket and pulled out an object that at the moment, I thought was a coin he began flicking into the air. But now…

"A platinum chip…." I sighed and stared at the counter with separated me from the Khan. "What's so special about it?"

The Khan held his hands up. "Listen, girl. Benny didn't tell me anything, but he needed the hired arms and we needed the caps. Although the little snake ripped us off."

The throbbing of my bullet scar became more intense. "You mind telling us where Benny is now?"

"Probably ran off to the Tops Casino. Don't know where else he could have gone; you're probably not the first person he's pissed off."

I thanked him for the information and was just about ready to turn away, but the Khan stopped me.

"Wait, you're just going to leave?"

"Uh…" I glanced over at Livius. "Yeah, seems that way."

The Khan frowned, I saw Livius reach for his machete.

"Well in case you haven't noticed, we have a little situation here with the NCR."

I frowned. "But I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do about it. You have your men; why don't you shoot your way out…of course when we're far away."

"I'm not wasting any more lives than I have to on this."

"Don't worry." Livius stepped forward. "I can assure you that you won't have to worry about the NCR for long."

The Khan glanced down at Livius' arm. The sleeve was ripped, revealing two thick black stripes tattooed on his otherwise pale skin. I should have gotten him to cover that up before we walked past rows of heavily armed NCR troops.

His eyes widened a bit, and he stepped back. "You…you're Legion?"

Livius nodded, I shook my head.

The Khan reached into his pocket and I prepared to fight back, but instead he slammed a rather fancy lighter on the counter.

"Here's Benny's lighter. Shove it back up his ass and tell him Jessup sent you."

Livius seemed a bit more reluctant to touch the lighter after that comment, but he grabbed it and tucked it into his bag.

"I'll do my best, _Amicus_."

"Give 'em hell."

Before I could fully grasp what the fuck just happened, Livius turned towards me. "Come on. I want to be at Freeside before sundown."

"Alright…just cover up your damn arm, will you?"

* * *

**It's a silly headcannon of mine that Celeste's bullet scar aches when she's around Benny, sort of like Harry Potter.**

**But yeah, I think I'm just a little over halfway done with this thing (maybe, I didn't map out this story like I usually do). But I just wanted to thank everyone who stuck with this silly thing through the...months. Thank you kindly, it means a lot.**


	10. Chapter 10

"I can't believe I'm going to say this." Livius hugged his arms, bringing his knees up to his chest. "But I'm cold."

Apparently the original plan of making it to Freeside before nightfall was not going to happen. With only Livius' improvised map scribbled down on a napkin as a reference, we severely underestimated the distance between Boulder City and the walls of New Vegas.

"How do you think I feel? I don't even have sleeves." I sat down next to him on the side of the road. "Let's rest here tonight."

"I don't think it's a good idea to sleep out in the open like this." Livius looked around. "And I don't see any places we can stay in around here."

I dropped my bag on the ground. "Well I'm not walking anymore."

Livius used the lighter the Khan gave us and lit a small fire, but it was hardly enough to warm us up.

"Why the hell is it so cold?" I rubbed my arms and inched closer to the fire.

"It is November, I believe." Livius reached into his bag and pulled out his Legion armor.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you doing?"

"The uniform is warmer." Slipping the shoulder pads over his head, he rubbed his hands together and scooted in towards the warmth.

At that point I was too exhausted and freezing to go into that discussion again, so I curled up on the Mojave floor and tried to get comfy.

And then it started to rain.

As the first few drops hit my face, I squirmed and shot back up into a sitting position.

"Are you fucking serious?!" I wiped the drops off of my glasses. "Why _now_? Why start raining for the first time in a million years when I'm outside like this?!"

Livius removed his shoulder pads and held them above his head as a shoddy attempt at shielding himself from the rain. "I don't know, the rain's kind of nice." The small fire was very much extinguished at this point.

I shivered and rubbed my arms, at this point my hair was plastered to the sides of my face. "Couldn't it have waited until we were inside or something?"

Livius gave me a strange look for a while, but I couldn't tell why.

"What? What is it?"

"Your shirt's see-through."

I immediately crossed my arms over my chest and turned away, grumbling a bit. "That's it. I hate the rain and water."

"Well you're in the right place then." Livius opened the canteen and tried collecting some of the water as it fell down to earth.

I stood up, one arm still crossed over my chest (why the fuck did I wear white?). "I'll keep watch tonight. You get some sleep."

Livius looked disappointed at the small amount of water he collected. "Are you sure?"

I pushed my glasses up. "There's no way I'm going to be able to get any sleep when it feels like the sky is spitting on me."

He rolled onto his back, the desert floor was now more like a mud pit. "If you're sure. Night."

"Yeah, I'm sure." I squinted my eyes from the rain and traced my fingers over my pistol.

…

The air felt muggy and thick the next morning. The rain was gone, but it left a heavy blanket of humidity behind. My eyes ached from staying awake and my legs were sore from standing for so long. Behind me, Livius stirred in his sleep and he slowly woke up.

"Morning." He rubbed his eyes. "The raining stopped."

"Yeah, thank god." I rubbed my eyes behind my glasses. "You ready to start going to Freeside?"

"I think so." Livius stretched and stood up, slipping the Legion armor off of his shoulders.

Walking through the Mojave after the rain felt like we were swimming through the air. I trudged a pathetic distance behind Livius, it felt like I was slowly suffocating in the heavy air. Livius would have to make frequent stops to allow me to catch up.

"I can see the wall in the distance." Livius stopped and waited until I was standing next to him. "We're almost there."

"Halle-fucking-lujah." I wiped the sweat and humidity off of my glasses and stopped to catch my breath.

After about an hour of swim-walking, the walls around New Vegas towered over us, a huge, monstrous structure made of cement from pre-war buildings which were ripped down, topped with barbed wire and metal spikes. I dropped my bag next to my feet and let out a low sigh.

"Okay, now how do we get inside?"

Livius craned his neck to the side, as if he were trying to look around the wall. "No idea."

"Let's just keep walking until we find the entrance."

I was about to nod in response, but a scream cut me off.

"Did you hear_"

"Fiends." Livius readied his machete and looked around. "They're rampant around these areas."

"You think we can avoid them?" I unclipped my pistol, but I was not looking forward to another fight.

Livius frowned. "You can try giving them a supply of chems like you did with the raiders."

"You think that will work?"

"Shut up and fight."

A pack of people with in tribal armor with a variety of weapons ran towards us, each with an animal skull on their heads. There were both men and women in the pack and they all seemed to have a crazed look on their faces; the same look I recognized from the raiders.

"At least they're inclusive."

"This isn't the time for that." Livius ducked behind a wall of concrete to avoid a blast from an energy weapon. I jumped next to him, trying desperately to reload my gun.

"If only I had my supplies." I grumbled. "I could negotiate some kind of agreement with them."

"You can't solve all of your problems by makings drugs!" Livius shuddered at the sound of frenzied laughter from the fiends.

"Well you can't solve all of your problems by killing." I peeked out from behind the wall and tensed up when I realized the fiends were a lot closer than I originally suspected.

The moment my eyes locked with the fiend's bloodshot ones, I aimed my gun and fired at his exposed chest. The fiend fell backwards, the animal skull on his head shattering as it hit the concrete.

I managed to catch my breath and I ran out from behind the wall to the body. Unfortunately he wasn't dead, but he seemed to be too busy clutching his bleeding wound to pay any attention to me. I picked up the energy weapon he dropped and finished the job.

"Who's next?!" I moved the weapon around in my hands awkwardly, still not sure how to properly operate one. When I looked up, I felt a sense of relief when I saw that the fiends were gone. But before I could give a sigh of relief, an eruption of manic laughter came out from behind the wall.

"Livius!" I ditched the energy weapon and aimed my pistol at the wall. Somebody yelled, but I couldn't tell what they were saying, and the body of a fiend flew out from behind the wall. The body landed in a heap by my feet; his throat was slashed. My throat felt dry, but I kicked the body to the side and ran even faster to the wall.

When I got close enough, the area where the body was tossed out of was eerily silent. I slowed my steps down and kept my gun close.

Wish a few shaky breaths, I jumped out behind the wall and aimed my gun but to my surprise, every single fiend was already dead. Livius sat in the middle of the mess, looking shaken.

It looked like the fiends swarmed him, but fortunately he looked like he was able to handle them. While most obviously had their throats slit with the machete, some were mangled beyond recognition. From decapitations to being completely dismembered, it was hard to imagine this all came from one guy in a few minutes.

"I wonder why you even need me around." I clipped my pistol to my belt.

Livius didn't respond. His body shivered as he stood up, the blood dripped off of his machete from being gripped by a shaking hand.

"Hey, are you okay?" I knelt down and examined the body of one of the fiends.

"Nothing happened." Livius almost blurted out. He pressed his forehead against the concrete wall.

"Sure doesn't look like it." I removed the animal skull from the head of one of the fiends.

Livius still remained quiet, his eyes closed. I decided not to press the matter any further.

"I think Antler needs a new friend." I tossed the fiend's hat in my hand.

Livius' eyes cracked open. "Hm?"

"Nevermind."

"Hey, is everything okay in there?!" A voice called from the other side of the wall.

Livius didn't move, but I peered out from behind the wall of concrete. A group of NCR troopers stood with their weapons drawn, a few were examining the bodies of the fiends.

I glanced over at Livius; it didn't look like he was in any mood to randomly attack anyone anymore.

"We're back here!"

A few NCR troopers stepped behind the wall and I heard one gasp when they saw the mess Livius made.

"Fiends, huh?" One of the troopers sighed. "I'm sorry you had to face them alone, but it looks like you got this taken care of."

I nodded slowly. "Thank you, sir. He's just a bit shaken now." I ghosted my hand over Livius' shoulder.

The trooper gave a sympathetic look. "Well it's dangerous around here, hopefully you two can find some safety in Freeside."

"Yeah, actually we're trying to get there. But we had a few issues on the way." I glanced down at one of the bodies.

The trooper nodded, but then another one stepped forward.

"Something isn't right. Young man, let me see your weapon." He held his large hand out.

I felt my body freeze up and Livius didn't budge. I had to nudge him in the side to get him to hold his machete out. The trooper grabbed the bloodied weapon and examined it. He frowned and dropped it on the ground; Livius winced.

"This weapon is Legion. The remains of the fiends looks like a Legionary's doing too."

"I…I was a Legion slave…" Livius' voice was soft and shaking. "I escaped with whatever I could."

The trooper who took his weapon seemed skeptical, but the rest looked sympathetic.

"Can you prove it?"

Livius looked mildly uncomfortable, but he turned his back to the NCR and lifted up his shirt. The pale skin on his back was covered in deep, red slashes. They all appeared to be healed over, but some looked more recent than others. Livius pulled his shirt back down as quickly as he pulled it up. At this point, he had the NCR's complete attention as well as mine; I can't believe I haven't seen these before.

"And…who is she?" One of the troopers pointed at me.

"She helped me escape." Livius kept his gaze on his feet, but he looked up with wide eyes that looked like they were going to spill over any moment. "Please don't send me back."

"No, no!" The troopers surrounded him, one placed a hand on his shoulder. Livius looked about a thousand times more uncomfortable than he did before.

"You'll never have to worry about the Legion again."

"You're safe now with us."

"We'll wipe out every single one of them, don't you worry."

Livius gave a small nod. "Thank you…"

"So you two are heading to Freeside?"

When Livius didn't respond, I stepped forward and nodded. "Yeah, we're hoping to find work there."

The NCR trooper picked up the machete and I saw Livius flinch again.

"How about this," he handed the machete back to Livius. "We could escort you to Freeside personally; it looks like you've been through enough on your own."

Livius snatched the weapon back. "Thank you, but we_"

"We'd really appreciate it!" I stepped in front of Livius.

"All right, follow our lead. It can be dangerous around here, as you've just witnessed, so try to stay close."

"Thank you very much, sir."

When the NCR troopers began to walk away, I turned back to Livius.

"You think you can handle this?" I whispered.

Livius looked like he was in a daze, but he nodded. "Y-yeah. Let's go."

…

We were attacked by fiends a few more times on the way to the front gate, but the NCR insisted that we don't fight back. It was frustrating having to sit back while they fought. Livius seemed to be almost studying their movements.

"If you're planning anything, stop."

Livius frowned and stared down at his feet. "I was a whore to those degenerates…."

"Who? The fiends or the NCR?"

Livius inhaled sharply through his nose and gripped the hilt of his machete.

"Caesar would be ashamed of me."

I sighed. "Who gives a fuck what he thinks? You're alive, be grateful for that."

Before Livius could respond, the NCR men ran back to us, the fiends now just mere corpses on the ground. I wiped the humidity off of my glasses.

"Sorry about that. You two ready?"

"I think so." I nudged Livius to move and he nodded.

We probably walked around the entire perimeter of the wall when we were finally standing before the entrance to Freeside. The rusted gears groaned as the gate was slowly cranked open. When the gate was no longer in the way, I could see what laid behind didn't seem to be worth protecting. The streets were dark and soggy from last night's rain. The concrete buildings were falling apart and painted with graffiti. Over the crumbling city, I could see the tops of the casinos glowing in the distance.

"It's still dangerous here, but you're safe from the raiders." The NCR seemed more relaxed now, but they held their weapons close. "If you want, you can hire a bodyguard to protect you."

I glanced down at my pistol. "No thanks, I think we're fine."

"All right, you two take care now."

We were about to step away, but then one of the NCR troopers stopped Livius, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Listen, son. I know you've been through a lot, but we'll doing whatever we can to make sure you'll never have to go through that again. Any information, any at all, would be much appreciated."

Livius' face was so pale it was almost blue. He nodded stiffly, his jaw tightened and his lips sucked in into a dry straight line.

And he remained that way, even when we were miles from the front gate and the NCR were nowhere to be seen. He kept his eyes focused on the ground and nearly stumbled into a few streetlights from his lack of attention.

We walked past boarded-up buildings, criers for different businesses, and venders selling various types of strange meat.

I had to grab Livius' arm to prevent him from walking right into one of the meat stands.

"Okay, something's up."

He light out a shaky sigh. "It just feels weird. I feel like a traitor."

"You're doing what you can to stay alive so you can go home."

Livius glanced to the side. "But what if…what if they think I'm dead? What if they've already replaced me?"

I frowned. "Just don't worry about that. When you get back home and you prove that you're still loyal, I don't doubt they'll let you back in."

Livius didn't respond, but he seemed slightly more optimistic. So fortunately he couldn't tell I was practically talking out of my ass; I didn't know how the Legion ran things.

We turned a corner and the entrance to the Strip was right there on the far side of the street. A thick, heavy metal door much like the gate that guarded Freeside, but this one was lined with rows of Securitrons. I slowed down my steps and tried to walk to the gate as slowly as possible, but I felt someone brush past me.

At first I thought the figure running past me was Livius and I began to panic, but he was still standing next to me. The other man dashed past us, pushing himself past the securitrons. Robotic voices yelled out for him to stop, but he didn't listen.

Before he was even within a foot of the main gate, there was a loud banging, and somehow electric sound and the man fell over dead; smoke rose from the body and the arms of the securitrons overhead.

Livius and I stared at the body and I felt incredibly stupid for even considering stepping up to the gate after witnessing that. We exchanged a nervous glance and hesitantly stepped forward.

"Submit to a credit check, or have passport and identification ready." A policeman-faced securitron barked at me, the screen feeling much too close for my taste.

"Uh…" I couldn't help but to glance at the body roasting in front of the gate. "How much is the credit check?"

"2,000 caps."

I felt my jaw drop. I've never seen that much money in my entire life.

"Um, we don't have that type of money, but maybe we can negotiate someth_"

"Submit to the credit check or present your passport and identification."

"We're here on business." Livius stepped forward and crossed his arms.

"No excuses. Submit to the credit check or present your passport and identification."

I sighed. "Let's just go."

We turned away from the gate and I couldn't help but to grumble a bit. "After all of that, we're finally stopped by a door."

"To be fair, the door would shoot us where we stand."

"Let's just find some place to stay. Maybe then we can find some way to make money."

…

It took a lot of pushing and shoving, but I finally managed to get Livius to enter a place called the Atomic Wrangler. The moment he saw a rather buxom woman in a skimpy leather bodice and shorts advertising the location, he didn't want to go anywhere near it.

"This place is disgusting." He scrunched up his face at the scent of cigarette smoke, cheap whiskey, and cheap perfume. "It represents everything wrong with the degenerates of the wasteland."

"Hey, can it." I stepped past the roulette tables and took a seat at the bar.

"Welcome to the Atomic Wrangler." One of the bartenders, a male one, wiped down the surface of the bar with a rag.

"How much for a room?" I tried to avert my eyes from the bottles of whiskey on the shelf behind him, but boy was it tempting…

"Ten caps per night. Of course it costs a little more for some…extra entertainment."

Livius looked like he was going to throw up, but I gave a sigh of relief. With the ludicrous price for the credit check, anything cheaper than 50 caps was very much welcome.

I dropped the caps on the counter. "Hey, my friend and I are looking for ways to earn a few extra caps. You wouldn't by any chance have some job openings?"

"The day I work here is the day the Legion surrenders and gives the NCR a hug." Livius whispered to me.

"'fraid we don't have many openings as far as barkeeps and servers go…" he held his chin in his fingers and examined us. "Your friend does seem like the type many of the customers are in to. Maybe for a_"

"Absolutely not!" Livius swiped his hand against the counter, knocking a shotglass on the ground.

The barkeep raised an eyebrow. "That will cost you."

I grabbed Livius' arm. "I can't take you anywhere."

"I am not a whore!"

"We could also use some help recruiting people. A lot of the customers have certain…fetishes that need accommodations…."

"I am _not_ your pimp!"

"Livius, please. You're embarrassing us!"

"Please, we all know I'll still be the pimp around here."

I had to hold down Livius' arms. "We'll just take the room for now."

The bartender slid the key over to us and we managed to walk up the stairs without breaking anything else.

When we entered our room, I tossed my bag onto the bed, but Livius remained by the door, as if the rest of the room was coated in nuclear waste.

I sighed. "What's wrong this time, kid?" I began rummaging through the dresser drawers.

Livius scoffed and crossed his arms. "This place just feels filthy."

I shrugged and sat down on the bed and Livius shivered.

"Okay so when you're done being a baby, we need to think of a way to make money."

Livius stared at the floor as if it was coated in lava. "Well I'll tell you one thing. I am _not_ doing anything for that degenerate of a barkeep."

"Fine, then you can sell information about the Legion to the NCR. I'm sure they'd pay a lot for that."

Livius didn't look any less disgusted. "I would never be a whore like that."

Apparently Livius' paranoia was contagious and I jumped off of the bed.

"Well we need to find some way to make a lot of money, or find some way for both of us to get passports."

"How much do we have now?"

"Not sure." I picked my bag up off of the bed and began rummaging through it but before I could pull the bag of caps out, something else caught my attention.

"Is something wrong?" Livius looked up when my movements came to a stop.

"I think I know how to get past the securitrons…but it's very risky."

"Will I have to give up my dignity?"

"No."

"All right, I'm in."

I moved some supplies to the side inside the bag and pulled out a few sheets of old, crumpled pieces of paper.

Livius raised an eyebrow.

"Let me explain." I smoothed down the papers and began examining the text. "Remember when I reprogrammed that robot back in Primm?"

"Yeah?"

"Well I…borrowed a sheet from the robotics guide book. Maybe they have the codes for reprogramming the securitrons."

Livius took a step back, only to hit his head on the door behind him. "And you see nothing wrong with this plan?"

"What? We did it before."

"Yeah, on a worn-down tour robot in a dingy casino, not a fully armed securitron guarding the Strip."

I thumbed through the pages. "But when you get down to the main infrastructure, they're pretty much the same thing…aha!"

I ran over to Livius and handed one of the sheets to him. He looked at me like I handed him a headless gecko.

"I don't know what this says."

"It's the same line of data that's used in passports, and people who already went through the credit check." I reviewed the code again. "And fortunately it's a verbal command so I don't have to take the securitron apart in the middle of Freeside."

"I have no idea what you just said, but as long as I don't have to sell my body, I'm with you."

…

Livius practically ran out of the Atomic wrangler and I struggled to chase after him. Nightfall was rapidly approaching and we were only able to rely on the streetlights and the light which leaked in from the Strip to see.

But the area around the entrance to the Strip was so brightly lit, it looked like it was still bathed in sunlight. The securitrons' metal forms gave off an almost blinding glare from the brightness.

"Submit to a credit check." The securitron came uncomfortable close to me again. "Or have_"

"Yeah, yeah." I pulled the paper out of my pocket and read the code. Almost immediately, a series of strange clicking and whirring sounds came from deep inside the robot's hardware.

"If this thing explodes," Livius whispered. "Then I'm making a run for it."

"Uh…thank you, ma'am. Enjoy the Strip." The securitron moved to the side, leaving the pathway to the gate clear.

Livius looked at me. "How did he know your gender…"

"I…I have no idea…" I stared up at the other securitrons which lined the walkway to the gate. "You think the message got to them too?"

"Let's hope so…" He tugged at his collar. "I also hope they know I'm with you."

"Well I know you can run fast, so that shouldn't be an issue."

"Livius frowned. "That's not very comforting."

Keeping our gaze locked on both the securitrons and the corpse of the man who ran to the gate before (when were they going to clean that up?), we slowly inched our way past the robots which had the ability to kill us any moment.

When our bodies were still intact by the time we finally made it through, the gate began to slowly open. I held my breath as the rusted gears creaked to lift the metal doorway.

I could hardly believe what I saw when the gateway was lifted all the way. Even back in Tennessee, I've never seen anything like this. Every single building was intact and glowing with neon lights. Even the streets seemed to glitter from the lights.

"A cesspool of greed and corruption…" Livius whispered.

"Shh. Don't ruin this for me."

Everyone else walking along the streets looked just like the people on the advertisements for this place. They were all beautiful, decked in the finest clothing, and slightly intoxicated. A lot of them gave us weird looks, probably because we were wearing sweaty, blood-stained clothing.

Music seemed to emanate from the countless casinos which lined the streets. I was almost made weak to the knees from the sensory overload. Years of living in shacks, wandering the wastelands, and trying to get by on the bare minimum almost made me forget that there was still such a thing as luxury.

Livius was cynical, no doubt from the philosophies he developed from the Legion, but the look of awe was still very present on his face.

"I can't see the stars anymore."

I shrugged. "Look around you. We don't need stars now."

Livius glanced upwards, his pale skin began adopting the colors from the neon lights being shined on him. He then sighed and dug his hands in his pockets.

"Don't forget. The man you're looking for is still here."

The comment sent me crashing back to reality.

"Oh, right."

…

**Sort of sad that I'm like, what, 9 or ten chapters in and I still don't know how to pronounce Livius' name. It sounds straightforward, but I think he would use the classical Latin pronunciation which just makes it…weird. So I just call him Liv.**

**I live around the area Fallout: New Vegas takes place (actually, I live where most of the Legion are, yay me) and we've been experiencing heavy rainstorms so…rain. **

**One of my friends who's reading this keeps asking if I'm going to make Celeste and Livius end up together. Well if you're also waiting for an ending like that, I'm sorry but you're going to be disappointed. I would never taint their bromance with actual romance. It's just weird.**


	11. Chapter 11

"I'm rather torn on something, Livius." I unclipped my pistol and twirled it around in my hands as we walked down the Strip. "When I encounter Benny, should I confront him with a Latin quote or a Bible verse?"

Livius still had his gaze locked on the securitrons that seemed to be lining every street. "I don't know. Whatever seems to fit best, I suppose."

I cleaned the barrel of the pistol with my knuckles. "Maybe a Latin proverb; 'fraid I don't know any Bible verses."

The neon lights from the casinos flashed and seemed to only be getting brighter in the night sky. Livius cupped his hand over his eyes.

"How about 'I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the_"

"Yeah, I'm trying to keep this short and sweet, though." I stopped walking and clipped my pistol back to my belt. "How did you memorize that anyway?"

Livius shrugged. "Some people read."

I ignored his comment and kept walking. "We need to get some new clothes. I feel kind of gross."

"How about after we deal with your little revenge fantasy?"

I sighed a bit and stopped in front of the Tops Casino, one of the larger casinos in the area. The metal doors were probably a good foot or two taller than both of us and the entire building glowed with neon red lights. A few people would stumble through the doors, even some NCR troopers. The music of saxophones seemed to be blaring from inside the casino. Livius and I looked at each other.

"You ready?" Livius narrowed his eyes at some of the NCR troopers.

I took a deep breath. "Yeah, let's go kick his ass."

* * *

The inside of the Tops felt like it was from a different planet compared to the Atomic Wrangler. The main lobby was huge, so huge in fact that sometimes I forgot I was indoors. The red carpet felt unbelievably soft beneath my feet. Like the Atomic Wrangler, the smell of booze and cigarettes was hard to block out, but it was obvious it was made up of expensive booze and expensive cigarettes.

This was the final nail in the coffin of how much Livius and I didn't fit in.

"We're finding this Benny, and then we're leaving." Livius whispered and for once I actually agreed with him due to how uncomfortable I felt.

Right when we were going to walk around the front desk to begin searching, the man behind the front desk stopped us.

"Whoa, baby doll. I'm going to have to ask you to hand over your weapons." He (and most of the other employees) looked like an exact clone of Benny, minus the checkered coat. If it wasn't the slicked-back hair and the way he talked, then it was just the overall attitude.

"Baby doll…?" Livius frowned and tilted his head to the side. I glanced down at my pistol and it was obvious I wasn't going to get through without handing them over.

I first made sure that my spiked knuckles were still in my pockets before I walked up to the counter and began emptying my weapons from my bag. The man behind the desk didn't seem at all phased when the pile of weapons grew to include a pistol, two knives, a grenade launcher, and a few capsules of chemical weapons. Livius placed his machete down as his contribution to the tower of death.

"You think this counts as a weapon?" I picked up Antler and turned to Livius.

"How could that possibly be a weapon?"

"I don't know, you could throw it at someone." I turned back to the Counter Man. "Is this okay?"

"It should be, baby doll. Is that all?"

Livius nodded and suddenly the spiked knuckles in my pockets felt much heavier.

"Think so."

"Well enjoy the Tops, Kitty Cat. Bar's open 24/7 and live music will be playing in the Ace at 5. You'll dig it, baby."

As we walked away, Livius turned towards me.

"What's a 'kitty cat'?"

I shrugged. "That's not important now. Just keep going."

While the main room of the casino was wide and open, there was no way to escape the smell of cigarettes, liquor, and perfume. Livius rocked nervously from side to side, tugging at the collar of his vest.

"Do you see him?"

I scanned the room and no one really stood out to me. People in fancy, sharp clothing sat at slot machines, blackjack tables, or roulette wheels. Over this all, jazz music was playing, but I couldn't find the source.

Right when I was about to shake my head, I saw a recognizable figure standing on the far side of the room by the elevators. A small cluster of men in suits seemed to mingle about, but one stood out-a man in a checkered coat.

"I found our man." I pushed my glasses up and waded through the main casino without even checking to see if Livius was following me. The chatter of the men got louder and louder as I approached and the jazz music faded into the background but whatever they were talking about was muddled down by the ludicrous amounts of slang they used.

Benny turned his gaze toward us and his entire face paled and froze into a combination of fear and confusion. After all of my planning, after I already had a clever and ironic Latin proverb memorized, when I actually came face-to-face with him the only thing I could say was:

"You!" I pointed my finger at him, the spiked knuckles in my pockets were just begging to be used, but I didn't want to start a scene. At least not yet.

A few of the other men in pale gray suits (bodyguards?) stepped closer to us, but Benny stopped them.

"What in the goddamn…" Benny took a small step back. "Let's keep this in the groove, hey? Smooth moves. Smooth_"

"I have no idea what you just said, but you're going to pay for shooting me!" I was going to have to rely on Livius to stop me from pouncing this asshole.

Benny looked over nervously at the people gambling in the casino. "Listen, baby, do you really think this is the best place for your little confrontation?"

"Give me one good reason not to kill you where you stand."

Benny scoffed. "You want one reason? How about I give you five? They're called bodyguards."

The other men around him looked like they were ready to attack, but obviously Benny was the only one preventing them from doing so.

"For an added bonus, how about the other people in the casino? You really want the entire Strip to recognize you as a murderer?"

He smirked and I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Just tell me why you shot me. I also want to hear about this 'platinum chip' thing."

Benny seemed to consider it for a moment. "How about this, baby doll, we should have this little meeting somewhere more private. I'll give you the keys to the presidential suite-best suite in the house. You deserve a taste of the VIP lifestyle."

"You'll answer us now." Livius moved in front of me, crossing his arms.

"I don't believe that's your decision, big fellow."

I gently pushed Livius to the side. "We'll take the keys, but if you bail on us I assure you the peaceful negotiations are over."

Benny tossed me a key. "You got yourself a deal, baby doll. The key unlocks the presidential elevator; I'll be up there in two shakes.

* * *

I nearly screamed when I got a good look at the suite. A huge, lavishly decorated room that made me feel like I stepped into another dimension. A polished pool table rested on an incredibly soft rug which was obviously imported. There was a bar on the far side of the room, stocked with liquor and fruit bowls and I was incredibly tempted to make a beeline over to it.

Livius collapsed on one of the plush couches and let out a sigh.

"You should reschedule the negotiations; this is nice."

I sat down on one of the barstools and bit into a crispy apple; I've never tasted fruit as sweet or fresh in my entire life.

"After we deal with him, I say we just relax for a while." I leaned against the bar. "It may be a while until he comes up here, so I'm going to try to look presentable."

I almost forgot what fresh water felt like and I definitely forgot what actual baths felt like. By the time I was done the water was an ugly mix of brown and red from all the dirt and blood that collected on me during my travels. A nice brown suit was left in one of the dressers and while it sagged a bit in the chest, it actually seemed to fit me.

Livius changed into a light blue suit and combed out his brown hair. "This feels weird…."

"You're not complaining, are you?" I placed a fedora on my head and examined my reflection; I always looked awful in hats.

Livius shrugged. "Not really, but this may be an elaborate plan. I know I sure don't feel like fighting right now."

He did have a point in that I felt way too relaxed to do anything, but just touching the scar on my forehead was enough to send me back to reality.

"Let's just get this over with. Afterwards, we can enjoy Vegas properly."

A crackling sound filled the air and we both snapped our gaze over to the intercom on the far side of the room.

"Baby, this little meet and greet is not really my style." Benny's voice cut through the static.

"What?!" Livius and I shouted in unison.

"I have things to do, kitty cat. So how about you and your boy toy sit tight and we'll take care of you soon enough?"

"You asshole! I'm going to kill you!" It took every ounce of willpower in me to stop myself from smashing the intercom.

"Hey, I am not a b_" Livius stopped and froze. "We should hide."

"What? Why?" I crossed my arms, still glaring at the speaker.

Without answering my question, Livius pushed the pool table over onto its side, jumping behind it and grabbing a pool cue.

"Someone's coming up the elevator. Get down."

I glanced back at the metal doors then ducked behind the pool table with Livius. He tightened his hands around the pool cue and I slipped my spiked knuckles on.

"Oh Mars, we're going to die…" Livius's knuckles around the pool cue were bone white at this point.

I opened my mouth to say something, but I was cut off by the light "ping" of the elevator reaching our floor-soon followed by gunshots. Four bodyguards, all wearing light gray suits, fedoras, and sunglasses spilled forth from the elevator and each one was armed with a revolver.

Each bullet that hit the back of the pool table made me flinch, but not as much as knowing one was right behind me.

Why did I hand over all of my firearms? Why did I hand over all of my firearms? Why?

While I was being extremely helpful with feeling sorry for myself, Livius jumped out from behind the pool table, grabbing one of the bodyguards by the necktie and flipping him over the table.

The bodyguard made a series of choking sounds, but they were silenced when Livius slit the man's throat with a small knife. I guess I wasn't the only one who smuggled weapons in.

Livius peeled the revolver out of the bodyguard's hand and tossed it to me. "Take this. I'll try to distract them."

At this point I wasn't phased from Livius's random acts of violence. Remaining behind the pool table, I aimed the gun at one of the bodyguards, hitting him a good two or three times in the chest until he fell to the ground.

Livius snuck up behind another, swiping the pool cue under his legs and sending him crashing to the ground where he took him out executioner style. Sometimes I regretted having someone like Livius around a lot, but other times I was extremely grateful.

I decided to let the last one off easy, just choosing to shoot him in the head instead of subjecting him to whatever Livius would have done.

By the time we were finished, we had four corpses on the floor and a very bloody suite.

"I got blood on my suit." Livius complained, looking at the now red cuffs of his jacket.

"Well then maybe you shouldn't have slit their throats like that." I tried to step around the bodies and puddles of blood. "What should we do with them? I don't want to leave them here?"

Livius tried to push the pool table back to its upright position. "What? Are we supposed to carry them back out of the Tops and ditch them somewhere? Sure, that won't draw any attention."

"Hm…" I paced around the bodies. "I say we just hide them in the bathroom for now, until we find a better way to get rid of them."

"Or until someone finds them."

So, first day in Vegas and we were already dragging corpses across a presidential suite and hiding them in the bathroom. Okay, not really hiding so much as tossing them in the middle of the room and slamming the door shut.

"Well...we made it to the Strip…?" Livius sat down on a bar stool and spun around a bit.

"Hey, don't think you're getting off that easily." I poured myself a glass of whiskey. "I still need to track down Benny."

Livius shrugged. "Of course. You don't think I'll bail on our deal like that, right? I'm not like Benny."

"Of course you're not. Although it would be awfully amusing to hear you attempt to use their lingo."

Livius picked at a pear in the fruit basket. "Uh...Ring-a-Ding-Ding...baby…?

I could barely stop myself from laughing. "Yeah, stick to the Latin."

He just smiled in response, turning the pear around in his hands. The blood from his cuffs stained the green peel when they brushed against it.

* * *

**Took a while because laptop decided to be an ass. Woo.**


	12. Chapter 12

"I hate this stupid fucking thing!" I slammed my fist against the side of the slot machine, no doubt creating a scene in the casino, but at this point I didn't care.

Before, Livius and I managed to scrape together all of the caps we could find in our pockets or lying around the suite. We didn't come out with much, but our plan was to only spend the caps on whatever we needed to survive while going after Benny or returning to the Legion camp.

So naturally I had to gamble it all away.

"This is bullshit…" My body was now draped over the machine at this point, my forehead pressed against the metal. Still had no idea how I was supposed to explain this act of stupidity to Livius. If only I had a different machine, then maybe I could have walked away with double the caps-triple the caps!

With a sigh I managed to push myself away from the casino and unlocked the doors to the suite elevator. I groaned and pressed the back of my head against the elevator wall.

Before the elevator could close, something stopped them. A shoe that has been expertly polished to the point where it looked wet wedged itself between the doors right before they closed. I scattered to the far end of the elevator and pressed myself against the wall as a man in a tailored brown suit stepped in. He had a matching brown fedora so I couldn't get a good look at his face, but he had pale skin and something about him did feel familiar.

"Uh, sir. I think you got on the wrong el_"

"The eyes of the mighty Caesar are upon you."

"Oh shit not you again…"

His eyes darted over to me and he let out a disappointed sigh. "I see we meet again."

"Well while I appreciate you popping by again, this really isn't the best t_"

He thrust a pendant into my hand, a circular piece of metal with a bull carved onto its surface. The pendant was on a small chain, but it still seemed too heavy to wear as a necklace.

"My lord admires your accomplishments, and bestows upon you the exceptional gift...of his Mark." It sounded like it actually hurt him to say it, but he managed to keep his voice and composure as steady as possible. "Any crimes you may have perpetrated against the Legion are hereby...forgiven. Caesar will not extend this mercy a second time."

"How long is this elevator ride?" I looked around and finally noticed Vulpes's thumb was firmly pressed on the emergency stop button.

"My lord requires your presence at his camp, at Fortification Hill. His Mark will guarantee your safe-conduct through our lands. I was instructed to escort you to his camp myself, in case anything goes awry."

"Yeah that's great and all, but I'm a bit busy right now."

Vulpes narrowed his eyes. "Are you turning down a gift from my lord?"

"Seems that way, yeah."

He sighed. "Well I suppose I can't stop you. However, I suppose it would be of interest to you that the man you seek is heading towards the camp as we speak."

I frowned and kept my eyes locked on the door. The deal Livius and I made said that if he helps me find Benny, I'd take him back to his little camp. I didn't know what Caesar would want with me, but I suppose this way I could kill two birds with one stone.

"Okay, you have a deal. I just need to tell my friend and then I have some other issues to deal with."

"Your friend?" Vulpes removed his thumb from the button, allowing the elevator to begin moving again. "My lord insisted that you go alone."

"Well, here's the thing...I sort of adopted a Legionary recruit."

The look on Vulpes's face made it obvious that he needed a further explanation, but then the elevator stopped at the suite floor.

Livius was seated at the bar, scribbling away in a notebook, but the moment he saw us he swiped the notebook off of the bartop.

"Mr. Frumentarius, Sir." He nearly jumped off the stool and did a sort of salute.

Vulpes gave a dismissive wave. "Oh it's you, Um...Recruit."

"Livius, Sir."

"Well, come in." I stepped to the side. "Mind the blood stains, though."

"Yes, I was just going to ask about that." Vulpes moved around the puddles of blood on the carpet. "Do I really want to know?"

"Took down a couple of bodyguards with a pool cue and a knife."

"I see…" he sat down at the bar by Livius, who looked like he was going to pass out. "I must say I am a little surprised, though. One would have thought that with all of my resources, I would have heard of your presence here eventually."

"Um, what brings you here, Mr. Frumentarius, Sir?" Livius slowly sat back down on the barstool.

Vulpes waved his hand again. "You're sucking up to the wrong person, I'm afraid. A Frumentarius is selected by Caesar, not me."

"Oh, I'm sorry….sir."

Vulpes sighed. "Well it seems that our lord is greatly impressed by the accomplishments of your friend over there. I was instructed to take both of you back to camp."

"'bout time someone appreciated me." I stepped behind the bar and began looking through the bottles of alcohol. "Can I fix you a drink?"

"Livius looked shocked. "Celeste, you know that the Legion forbids_"

"I suppose one drink wouldn't hurt." Vulpes removed his fedora and placed it on the bartop next to him.

The look on Livius's face was absolutely priceless as I fixed the Head Frumentarius a drink.

"But I thought…."

"I will occasionally dabble with alcohol while I'm infiltrating cities, yes." he took a small sip. "Sometimes to understand the degenerates, you have to experience their pleasures."

"Hell yeah!" I poured the rest of the bottle into a much larger glass.

Livius kept a nervous eye on the alcohol. "I think I'll pass…"

Vulpes shrugged. "Well I wasn't offering you any to begin with." he turned back to me. "Now, you. We have business to discuss."

"Yeah, what is it?"

"When will you be ready to leave?"

I stared at the whiskey in my glass. "Yeah, uh, not yet. I have some business to take care of."

He gave me an odd look. "What could possibly be more important than this?"

I kept trying to motion with my eyes to talk somewhere else, but when he didn't get the hint I moved over to the wall by the elevator and waited for him to follow.

"What on earth is it?" He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

"Okay, don't tell Livius this, but I accidentally gambled away all of our caps."

Vulpes slammed his forehead against the wall. The noise caused Livius to look over at us.

"And that is more important than meeting with my lord?"

I shrugged. "Well, I wasn't supposed to spend it anyway so I did break a promise. Plus I'm still a bit pissed that I lost that much. I feel like I was cheated or something."

He rubbed his forehead. "And I repeat: this is more important to you?"

"This is clearly the most important! I don't have to meet with him, you know; never on my agenda. But you have to make sure I make it to camp safely, which means I go when I'm ready."

"Or I could knock you unconscious and drag you there myself."

"Yeah, and how would it look if you were seen dragging some unconscious girl through the Strip? Won't do your cover very good." I pushed my glasses up. "And I never said I wasn't going to go, I just want to take care of this first."

Vulpes sighed. "Fine. I'll help you win your caps back, but afterwards we're going straight to camp. I don't want to be here much longer."

"Deal. That's all I wanted."

Vulpes turned back to Livius. "Start packing your bags, Recruit. We're leaving the moment we get back."

Livius jumped off of the barstool and began scrambling to collect his things while Vulpes and I stepped back towards the elevator.

…

"I hope you appreciate what I'm doing for you." Vulpes crossed his arms while we waited in line to collect our chips.

"Yeah, yeah. Just don't expect me to start sucking up to you like Livius."

Vulpes scoffed. "That kid is a fool if he thinks he could ever be a Frumentarius."

I shrugged. "I don't know...he seems loyal enough."

"Indeed, but he's a little too loyal." He nodded at the cashier and dropped some coins on the counter.

"How does that make any sen_" I stopped and stared at the coins Vulpes dropped on the counter. They were gold and engraved with a man's face. "AETERNIT IMPERI" was carved along the border.

"You're paying with Legion money?!" I tried to keep my voice quiet and level, but it was difficult. "Are you insane?"

He shushed me and locked eyes with the cashier. She just nodded and quickly collected the coins, occasionally giving nervous glances over to some of the NCR troopers standing around the casino floor.

When we finally got our chips, I made my way over to the slot machines, but Vulpes stopped me.

"And what do you think you're doing?"

I stared at the slot machines. "Uh, going to gamble?"

"Not with those." He began to guide, or well, drag me over to the poker tables. "It's much easier to trick humans."

I sat down at the table and he took a seat behind me. There were a few other people sitting around us, obviously more experienced than me. At this point, the scent of cigars and scotch was almost overwhelming.

"Uh, Vulpes? I don't know how to play…"

He narrowed his eyes under his hat. "It's obvious you don't know how to play off of humans either, but that's why I'm here." He leaned against the back of my chair and lowered his voice to a whisper. "See that old man on the other side of the table?"

To the far side of the table, a man in a finely tailored suit flipped through his cards. He looked like the Ultra Luxe puked him out.

"Yeah?"

"Well it looks like he comes into contact with more money every day than either of us will in our entire lives. He's going to bet big, but he's not stupid. Don't get too tempted from his outlandish bets. He'll play smart, but you can play smarter."

I began rearranging my chips into a tower. "Uh, okay?"

"They could also come in handy." He gestured over to a young couple seated to our left with his head. "This is probably the nicest place they've been to in a while; probably just saved enough to go. So they're going to play safe until they get more confident."

"You know these observations would be a lot better if you were an exotic woman in a sparkly evening dress right now."

"Do you want my help or not?" He leaned back in his own chair and crossed his arms. "Because I don't need this right now. I could be back at cap, rather than in a smelly casino with a woman who uses the word 'exotic' to describe real people."

"What, you're concerned with being politically correct?"

Vulpes stood up. "Fine, you try winning without my help."

"Wait, Vulpes!"

"What?!"

I paused. "...help? Please?"

He frowned for a moment and sat back down.

"Let me see your cards."

…

I would just like to say that it was not my fault that we were kicked out of the casino. Vulpes and I were on a roll, winning every single game we could, until we were banned from playing anymore.

"The house always wins, I guess." I shrugged and sorted through the caps we won.

"I expected this. Are you done yet?"

I examined a cap in my hand. Why stop now? We were already so far ahead, there had to be other places we could win this much money. Hell, if this came from just one casino, imagine how much I could win from all of them on the Strip.

"How about we play for a bit longer?"

Vulpes sighed and shook his head. "I'm not feeding into your addiction."

"It's not an addiction, it's just…" I stopped. By the elevators, a cluster of people were going through a door that seemed to lead into a basement or something. "What's that?"

He looked over at the door and the men entering it. "I'm...not sure, actually."

"Hm…" I tucked the caps into my pocket. "I'm going to go check it out."

"What, am I your babysitter or something now?" Vulpes chased after me and grabbed my arm. "You have your caps, we're going. Now."

"Relax, I just want to see what it is." I shook my arm out of his grasp and made my way through the door and down the stairs. I looked over my shoulder to see if Vulpes would follow. He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed, then joined me.

The steps creaked as we stepped down into a basement which I guess was once used to store alcohol for the casino, judging by the old crates of liquor pushed to the far corners of the room. Besides the crates, the only thing in the room was a rickety wooden table. The men were crowded around the table and the air was completely clouded with cigarette smoke. Against my better judgment (and Vulpes's) I sat down with them.

I took a seat and Vulpes pulled up a chair and sat down behind me, but not actually at the table.

"I don't like this." he whispered. "We're going to camp. Now."

"Don't tell me you're scared." I whispered back.

"I'm not scared, I'm just not a fool."

At the head of the table, the most well-dressed man at the table sat down. His suit looked like it was made out of silk and it glimmered in the slowly dimming light of the basement, his facial hair was neat and well-trimmed, and I swear I saw a diamond pinned to his tie. A diamond. Given that this was the Strip, the other men weren't too shabby either. All of their suits were perfectly tailored and well-pressed but unlike the Diamond Man, they all seemed a lot more nervous.

Mr. Diamond reached into his coat pocket and I could feel Vulpes tense up next to me, but relaxed when he only pulled out a deck of cards. He dealt the cards and even the cards were stupidly fancy. The way the pictures on the cards gleamed, it looked like parts of them were made with actual gold.

I flipped through my cards and shrugged, placing the caps I previously won on the table as my bet.

…

Vulpes must have been magical or something because once again, we were winning. Well, actually we were tied with Mr. Diamond, but we were doing far better than everyone else at the table. As the game went on and on and the other players soon ran out of money to bet, the pile grew to include wedding rings, watches, silk ties, and New Vegas Strip passports (which sounds useless since they were already all in the Strip). When the game ended, most of the men were without money, jewelry, passports, or even most of their clothing.

"That could have been you if it weren't for me." Vulpes whispered.

Mr. Diamond sorted through the items collected on the table. "Good game, gentlemen. Now how about we make things more interesting?"

He tossed a satin bag on the table and the sound of the caps moving inside only helped spur my curiosity.

"This bag contains two thousand caps." he pushed it to the center of the table. "Who wants to play? Winner takes all."

Everyone at the table stared at the pile with a look of hunger. Without a moment of hesitation, they handed their cards back in, eager to not only win their stuff back, but also to collect all of those caps.

"You have enough." Vulpes whispered to me. "Give up while you're ahead."

"Hey, two thousand caps is a lot." I handed my cards in.

Vulpes sighed. "Fine. I'll be waiting outside. I can hardly breathe in here."

He got up to leave, but the door was blocked off by two men who seemed to be built in a way that would make most super mutants jealous. They were both at least a foot taller than Vulpes and twice as wide. Vulpes sighed and sat back down behind me.

"Were they always there? I don't remember."

I shrugged and waited for Mr. Diamond to deal the cards, but they never came. Something was definitely wrong.

He reached into his jacket pocket again and placed something on the table.

A revolver.

Shit.

"I take it you already know what to do." He slid the gun over to the man to his left.

Shit, shit, shit. I glanced over at Vulpes through the corner of my eye and he seemed to have an eerie sense of calmness on his face. Well to be fair, he wasn't sitting at the table. I probably looked like a freshly shaven bighorner.

The man held the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

Click.

His eyes were wide and he looked like he couldn't believe his own luck. His hands shook as he passed the gun to the next person.

The gun managed to make it around the room without firing, until it got to me. I held guns before, but this one felt a lot heavier than I expected. Seems sort of counterintuitive that I was trying to hunt down the man who held a gun to my head, while holding a gun to my own head.

I spun the cylinder and when it clicked, I glanced back over to Vulpes. When he gave a small nod, I pressed the gun to my head. This asshole better not be lying to me. I squeezed my eyes shut and pulled the trigger.

Click.

I forced my eyes open and caught my breath. With shaking hands, I handed off the revolver to the man next to me. He wasn't so lucky.

After spinning the cylinder and pressing the gun to his temple, a loud gunshot erupted through the basement. His blood splattered all over me and I couldn't help but to scream. But just a little bit.

Mr. Diamond, however, didn't seem phased at all. He pried the revolver out of the now dead man's fingers and slid another bullet into the chamber.

"Who's ready for round two?"

Normally I would have flipped the table, told Mr. Diamond to go fuck himself, taken the money, and left. However with the door blocked off, it was clear I wasn't going anywhere any time soon.

Vulpes pulled his fedora over his eyes and shook his head with a small sigh.

Once again, the revolver made its way around the table and eventually found its way back in my hand. I spun the cylinder like before and it stopped with a particularly heavy "click". I didn't even have to look at Vulpes's face to know that this was the one.

My vision swam, my breath hitched in my throat as I pressed the gun to my head. Somehow I had a feeling that my luck with surviving bullets to the head was just a one time thing.

Before I could even pull the trigger, I felt a cold hand grip my wrist and pull my hand away. Instinctively I pulled the trigger and caused the gun to go off.

When I opened my eyes, I saw that Vulpes jumped up and moved my hand away. I also saw that in accidentally pulling the trigger, Mr. Diamond (or whatever his name was) was now bent over the table and bleeding out of his chest.

Vulpes's breath was hitched, but he still looked as calm as ever. The room was completely silent while everyone tried to register what just happened.

"See if you can take out the two men by the door." he whispered, letting go of my wrist. "I'll try to back you up."

"Wait, what?" My wrist ached where he previously grasped it.

Without even bothering to answer me, he disappeared into the shadows leaving me with an empty revolver, a handful of terrified gamblers cowering in a corner, and two bodyguards who were going to beat me into a bloody pulp.

When gunshots began to fill the air, I ducked under the table and began searching through Mr. Diamond's possessions, but I couldn't find any more ammo.

"Come on…" Still, nothing. I bit my lip and swept my feet under the legs of the table, causing it to topple over onto its side, acting as a makeshift barricade from the bodyguards.

However I forgot that they could always walk around the table.

Two meaty hands grabbed my upper arms and I was lifted off of the ground, my feet kicking and swinging like a child's.

"Let go of me!" I kicked my leg backwards in the hopes of hitting him, but it felt like I barely made a dent on him. My glasses fell off of my nose and my breath escaped from my lungs as a gasp when he slammed me against the wall.

Vulpes, where the fuck are you? My ears were ringing and my eyeballs throbbed with each slam. I heard a sickening crack and for a scary second I couldn't tell whether that was the wall or my back.

With his hand now firmly wrapped around my neck, I was tossed onto the ground like a sack of flour. I felt my mouth fill with blood and moor blood dripped from my now-broken nose. My vision was blurry, but I could see Vulpes jump onto the back of one of the bodyguards, holding onto him by the tie.

The bodyguard made a series of choking sounds and began slamming his back against the wall to get him off. Vulpes apparently took being slammed against a wall better than me as he still looked as stupidly calm as ever. With a swift movement, he slit the guard's throat with a small pocketknife and he fell to the ground with a thud. Vulpes landed on his feet like a cat and locked eyes with the other guard who now looked frozen where he stood.

"Is there going to be a problem?" he twirled the knife around in his hand.

The guard didn't respond and at this point I doubted if they could even talk in the first place. Vulpes stepped closer to him, dodging every punch that the guard tried to land on him, then thrust the knife into his abdomen. The guard fell to the ground and my eyes finally closed as Vulpes finished the job.

"They weren't even armed. Get up." Vulpes's shoe nudged my side and pain shot up through my body. I heard him sigh and he grabbed my collar and pulled me to me feet.

"Um, thanks for that…" I tried to steady myself and I picked my glasses off of the floor.

"I hope you realize what you've done." He crossed his arms and he appeared more like a stern parent than the Legion's head spy.

"Yes, I know. Still, thank you."

Vulpes shrugged. "You're welcome. Go back to the room. We're leaving at once." He stepped over to the table which was knocked over.

"That, was incredible, though." I leaned against the wall and tried to get my vision to focus. "How did you learn to move like that?"

"Practice." He picked up the satin bag of caps and turned to the other gamblers. "Anyone have a problem with this?"

When no one objected, he turned away from them and began sorting through the bag. "My lord isn't going to be pleased with all of these distractions."

"Yeah, I'm sorry."

Vulpes frowned and looked back at the caps. "There's only 250 in here."

"So he scammed us?"

Vulpes looked over at the corpse of Mr. Diamond. "Are you really surprised?"

"Not really."

He almost smirked. "Let's go."

…

There were two things I did not expect when we stepped into the main lobby of the Tops. One was the sudden invasion of bright light that was almost blinding compared to the limited light of the basement. The other was that the place was swarming with NCR. Not drunk, gambling NCR, but actual NCR troopers on duty.

"What the hell…" I froze in place and even Vulpes seemed a tiny bit surprised.

"I'm not sure. Of course there is only one thing we can do."

"What's that?"

He didn't answer my question (he has a habit of doing that, I noticed) and strolled over to one of the troopers who appears to be interviewing a bartender.

"Sir, I would like to inform you that there is a shady, underground gambling institution going on in the basement of the casino that poses as a serious th_"

"Not now, sir." The NCR trooper held up his hand, and I swear I saw Vulpes flinch. "We found a Legion spy in the casino and we're trying to eliminate any other traces of Legion presence."

I know I gasped, but Vulpes appeared as stoic as ever. However, it was difficult for me to tell if the redness on his face was from the red lights of the casino reflecting off of his pale skin, or rather from him.

"Of course, sir." He sounded like he was forcefully pushing the words out of his mouth. "I'm sorry for bothering you."

"It's no trouble. Stay safe out there, son."

Vulpes spun around on his heel and began walking away.

"I step out for one moment…" He muttered under his breath.

"Wait, what about Livius?" I glanced nervously at the elevator door.

"That's what I'm worried about. Like I said, the boy is too loyal. I have a feeling that he'd rather turn himself in to the NCR than go against the Legion."

"Hey, he may be loyal but he's not stupid."

He gave me a weird look. "I know his type and I know him. I know how much he wants to be a frumentarius and how much he wants to prove himself. The best we can do is try to lie low and try to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible. Anything can be used against us at this moment."

"Didn't you pay with Legion money earlier?"

His jaw tightened. "Like I said: Try to keep low."

"He also had Legion armor in his bag."

Vulpes tugged at the collar of his suit. "Then start working on your excuses. I would prefer to leave without a fight. A diplomatic way is the best way to go. Play dumb if you have to."

"Ah, so I finally get a chance to use my charms?" I swept my bangs back in an exagarreted motion, exposing my bullet scar again.

Vulpes just cringed. "On second thought, leave the diplomacy to me. You can just sit in a corner and keep quiet."


	13. Chapter 13

When we got back to the presidential suite, NCR troopers were practically swarming the place. Vulpes remained in place in front of the elevator, but I immediately made my way to the bar where we left our bags. I gave a sigh of relief when I saw they haven't been touched and I swung the bag over my shoulder; Livius's Legion uniform inside definitely wouldn't make me look any better.

I walked back over to Vulpes who was examining the blood stains on the carpet and the pool table which was still on its side.

"I hope your excuse is a good one, because this is going to be hard to get out of."

"Working on it." I adjusted the bag on my shoulder.

One of the NCR troopers, an older one, made a beeline over to us. Vulpes straightened up where he stood.

"Is this your room, sir?"

Vulpes crossed his arms and for a second he actually looked...angry.

"Yes it is. I just got here and I would like to know what the hell is going on."

The NCR trooper stroked his beard. "You just moved in?"

"Just now and let me tell you, I thought that the Strip would have better service than to just break into someone's room like this."

He frowned. "May I see your passport, sir?"

I began to panic, but Vulpes reached into his pocket and handed him a small, blue booklet.

"I don't need this, you know." he complained while the trooper flipped through the pages. "I didn't save up for a passport and a presidential suite to be treated like a criminal."

"Calm down, Mr. Wales. I assure you you're not a criminal." he looked over at me and I felt a wave of panic wash over me. "What about her?"

"A work friend, helped me save up enough caps to get here."

"I see…" he locked eyes with me. "Miss, may I see your passport?"

"Um…" my eyes darted back and forth between Vulpes and the NCR man. I couldn't have been more obvious if I held up a giant sign that said SUSPICIOUS!

"You forgot your passport?!" Vulpes slammed his fist against the wall and even the NCR man flinched. "This is just what I need. Now my trip to New Vegas is going to be ruined because some idiot girl can't stay organized!"

I felt my eye twitch, but I decided to play along. "Your trip? If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be here! And who are you calling an idiot?!"

"The idiot I'm looking at! I knew I should have brought my dog instead…"

"You loved that dog more than you loved me!"

"Wait, what?"

"Calm down, calm down!" The NCR trooper shouted and we immediately shut up. He cleared his throat. "No one's trip is getting ruined. We just wanted to inform you that there was a Legion spy in your room."

Fuck…I felt my knees shake, but Vulpes didn't seem bothered at all. How does he do that…?

Instead, the look of anger he had previously melted into a look of fear. "Lewis...no...no, there was a misunderstanding."

"Excuse me?"

Vulpes removed his hat as if he just remembered his manners. "My name is Henry Wales, I'm a journalist. This is my secretary, Penny."

If we survive this, I'm going to kick his ass.

"I came to the Strip to not only enjoy the city, but I have a story coming up about life in the Legion. You see, I came into contact with a recently escaped Legion slave who was willing to share his story. We arranged to meet here, but I suppose I should have informed the casino staff beforehand. My apologies."

The NCR trooper appeared skeptical, but pressed further.

"Your friend did seem eager to turn himself in…"

I could hear Vulpes mutter the word "idiot" under his breath.

"It's quite sad, really. After years and years of living a life like that, he finds that he can't say 'no' to authority. He has absolutely no sense of independence." he shook his head. "Poor kid. I hope that after I publish my story, he'll be able to have his own life under the NCR."

The trooper's expression softened. "I'm very sorry, sir. But...we did find the bodies of four bodyguards piled up in the bathroom. We have reason to believe that he did it."

Since even Vulpes paled at the comment, I could only imagine what I looked like.

"I'm afraid I don't know anything about that...tell me, were they armed?"

The NCR trooper turned around and whispered to another.

"Yes, I'm told that they were armed."

"I see…" he picked at the fedora in his hands. "Well then how could he take down four armed men by himself? Especially we're required to turn in any weapons at the front?"

I could just hear him getting more and more irritated.

"Sir, I don't think I appreciate your accusations."

The NCR trooper took a step back. "What do you mean?"

"You have no reason to believe that he committed the crime, but yet you accuse him of doing so. If this is the kind of justice the NCR takes pride in_"

"Sir, please!" I hated calling him sir, but it seemed to fit. "He's just doing his job."

Vulpes seemed to calm down. He took a deep breath and bowed his head.

"My apologies; I didn't mean to get so excited; long trip and all."

The trooper nodded. "I understand, sir and I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. May I just ask you one question?"

"Yes?"

"Where can I see your work? You mentioned you're a journalist."

I felt my entire body tense up, but Vulpes just reached into the inside of his coat like he was going to pull out a gun, but instead he pulled out an old newspaper clipping.

"It's not my best work, I'm afraid, but here you go."

I craned my neck to look at the article. Pinch Serge, Oust Isadora was printed in bold, black letters and beyond that I couldn't read much more. The text itself appeared to be smudged and torn in some places, but printed below the title was the name "Henry Wales".

Oh he's good. The NCR man just scanned the article, obviously not really reading it.

"I've read better." he handed Vulpes the article back, who quickly shoved it back into his pocket.

"Of course, sir. Now please, release Lewis. I promise we won't get in your way again."

The NCR trooper looked hesitant, and turned to whisper something to the other men in the room. I hated feeling like I couldn't do anything, but it seemed like Vulpes had this one under control.

At last, he finally nodded. "All right, but it will cost you to bail him out."

The corner of Vulpes's mouth twitched. "How much?"

"500 caps."

"Deal. But I'm not paying you until I see him."

The trooper frowned, but nodded, motioning for the other NCR people to follow him out of the suite. I watched as they filed out and when they were all gone I turned to Vulpes.

"How did you…"

He pulled out the article and the passport.

"Henry Wales is, or rather was, a real pre-war journalist. I found one of his articles, cut it out, blotted out the dates and important details, and held on to it just in case something like this happened. As for the passport," he tossed the small book in his hand. "I know a guy who forges passports, for a pretty good price too. If you're going to lie, you'd better be prepared to back it up."

"That's...incredible…" I could see why he was head of the Frumentarii now…

He smiled, but it was as genuine as the passport he held. "Let's go. Livius is waiting on us and...your story needs work."

…

"How many times do I have to repeat this?" Vulpes tried to keep his voice down while we followed the NCR, but it was obvious he was having a hard time doing so. "Penny is my free spirited, but innocent secretary who came to the city to make it big."

"I know, but_"

"And after grinding away, she was picked up by me, Henry Wales, who recognized her spirit and passion in a world where no one else would. Can you remember all of that?"

I rubbed my temples. "Yes, but I think we can do something better."

He pulled out a small leather-bound notebook from his pocket. "I spent a week planning this story, and now you're telling me you can do better?"

I shrugged. "I don't know why I have to be your secretary. Why can't I be someone who still works for you, but still has some power. Like an agent or an attorney."

"An attorney…" he flipped open the book. "I'll keep note of that for next time. But Penny is a secretary."

"Do I look like a secretary?"

"That's the problem; you need to get into the role more. You're making this way harder than it needs to be."

I groaned. "How about we just focus on getting Livius out? This plan is getting way too elaborate."

Vulpes stared down at his notes. "Very well."

We stepped out through a chainlink fence and entered a huge courtyard. Even though I only spent a few hours in the Strip, I felt like I was walking into another dimension. The ground was dry and cracked beneath my feet and the only source of plant life came from two trees that looked like they were suffocating against the barren earth. The sun was just beginning to rise and the orange light hit a large cement building, making it look like it was on fire. To the right of a building, the largest NCR flag I've seen yet waved against a steel flagpole as thick as my waist. The flag whipped in the limited wind.

Livius would have had a heart attack if I brought him here, but fortunately Vulpes seemed a bit more collected, however I could tell even he seemed a bit uncomfortable. We followed the NCR into the main lobby of the building. The room was completely bare except for a receptionist's desk which was placed in the center. Despite being in a desert, the room was strangely cold and smelled like a combination of the earthy scent of freshly laid cement and the unnatural scent of wet paint.

The NCR brought us deeper and deeper into the building and the further we went, the more I was convinced this was some sort of trap. They brought us down stairs, through hallways, until they lead us into a much smaller room. The smell of cement and paint continued to follow us, but the temperature only seemed to drop. The room they lead us into was completely dark except for one light hanging from the ceiling. Livius handcuffed to a chair in front of a wooden table. One of the NCR men waved his hand, signaling for them to remove the handcuffs.

Livius rubbed his wrists when he was freed and Vulpes handed over the caps.

"There. May we go now?"

He counted the caps. "Well you went through with your side of the deal. I just have one more request."

"This wasn't part of the deal."

He held his hands up. "I just want to witness your interview with him. Any information he may have could greatly help the NCR."

Vulpes looked like he was about to decline, but then his expression softened.

"All right. But remember that you are not taking part in this interview. Any mention of an NCR presence could suggest the notion that this article is politically skewed."

"I understand, sir."

Vulpes sat down in a chair across from Livius while I just stood in a corner.

"Could we possibly get some better lighting?" Vulpes waved his hand a bit. "This makes me feel rather uncomfortable."

"I'm afraid we can't do that."

Vulpes frowned, the shadows on his face darkened and intensified.

"So, Lewis." he emphasized the false name so Livius knew he was talking to him. "You told me much of your story already, but I would like to know more. It isn't often that someone has the opportunity to sit down with an escaped Legion slave."

Livius seemed more and more nervous and Vulpes took out his notebook again.

"Y-yes…" he nodded. "Um, what do you want to know?"

"What was it like?"

He hesitated, his hands still rubbing his wrists. "It was brutal. No matter what I did, I never did it good enough. I would keep trying to prove myself, but I was never seen as anything more than a mere object."

Vulpes pretended to jot down notes, although I could clearly see that he was just doodling. "So you were conditioned into serving Caesar?"

Livius hesitated again. "Yes…"

"I'm awfully sorry." Vulpes began sketching out another cube. "What would they do to you?"

"They would beat me, sir."

"They beat you?"

Livius nodded, not meeting Vulpes's eyes. Under the gaze of everyone else in the room, he let out a shaky sigh and turned around in his chair. Slowly, he lifted his jacket and shirt off of his back. The light was limited, but the pale skin of his back was covered in red welts, scars, even a few burn marks.

How have I not noticed this before?

The NCR trooper watching us seemed disturbed, but Vulpes just added more to his cube. "That sounds awful. Do you remember your life before you were captured?"

He pulled his shirt back on and frowned. "I...I don't remember...I didn't have a life worth remembering, though…" he tugged at a few strands of his brown hair. "My mom was a junkie, though. That's all I can recall."

Vulpes tried to give him a sympathetic look while he filled his page with fire-breathing geckoes. "I can assure you that you won't have to worry about getting beaten ever again. Are you familiar with the Followers of the Apocalypse?"

"Is that some sort of suicide cult?"

He cracked a small smile. "No, but they can help you. Normally they help people with alcohol or chem problems, but they can help you get back on your feet. You don't have to worry anymore. The Legion can't hurt you now, especially with the NCR here."

Whether it was from having this much contact with his personal hero, being overwhelmed emotionally, or he was just really getting into character, but Livius began crying. He cupped his face in his hands, his shoulders shook and his entire body shivered like it just caught on with how cold the room was. Vulpes reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder, but that only seemed to make him cry harder.

"It's going to be okay." he repeated. "I promise."

I rubbed my arms and moved away from the table. I really hoped the NCR trooper found this convincing.

Vulpes sat back down in his chair. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut off the interview for now."

He nodded. "Yes, I understand." he gave Livius a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry, sir. But he's right; you're safe now."

Livius gave a shaky nod, his eyes were still wet and his nose and cheeks were red. He did look sympathetic, but to me his expression read "get this NCR man away from me".

Vulpes stood up, tucking his notebook under his arm. "I'm afraid I'll have to stop the interview early." he glanced over at Livius who was still shaking like a newborn bighorner. "I don't think he's in the right condition to continue."

"Of course." the NCR trooper looked back at Livius. "It's a shame what the Legion does to people. Fortunately this is the last time anyone will have to worry about it."

"Yes I…" Vulpes frowned. "What do you mean?"

The NCR trooper looked around. "Okay, I'm not supposed to tell you this yet, but we're planning an invasion on the Legion next week, ensuring that the dam is rightfully ours and to end this matter once and for all."

Vulpes's poker face barely had a crack in it, but Livius looked as nervous as ever.

"Next week, you say?"

He shook his head. "Forget I said anything."

"No, no." he fiddled with the notebook in his hands. "I would just like to start my article on the NCR's victory now so it can be published next week."

He laughed a bit. "Let's not get cocky yet. We do have the advantage, but the Legion's not stupid. They won't give up so easily."

Vulpes smiled and for once it actually looked genuine. "Advantage, sir?"

He waved his hand. "Ah, you know. Better equipment, more troops, we don't beat our men, things like that." he glanced over at Livius who cowered away. "Anyway, I understand you got what you came for?"

Vulpes nodded, but he looked like he was in a trance. "Yes, sir. Thank you."

"I'm sorry for the misunderstanding."

He shook his head. "Never mind that. You were just doing your job."

The NCR trooper didn't say anything and lead us out of the basement.

…

The funny thing about Livius is, I could never take him seriously as a cold-blooded killer even when he changed into his Legion uniform. Vulpes was a different story. Even though the uniforms looked incredibly stupid (no matter how many Legion friends I make, I will hold onto that opinion), Vulpes did manage to somehow look dignified while wearing it. Or at least as dignified as someone in a leather skirt can look.

Both Livius and Vulpes changed into their Legion uniforms after we left Freeside and I made sure to be at least twenty feet ahead of them while we ventured through the wasteland. Because if traveling with one Legionary would make me look bad, traveling with two would definitely be worse.

Apparently we also underestimated how far away the camp was because we were only halfway there when nightfall came and Vulpes decided to set up camp.

"I must say today was a success." he sat in front of the fire, picking at a piece of gecko but not actually eating it. "Came to the Strip to give you the mark, came back with a missing recruit and valuable information."

"Yeah, something doesn't feel right about that…" I took off my glasses and rubbed my eyes. "That NCR man was way too easy to get that information out of."

"Well you weren't the one doing all of the work to get that information in the first place." he crossed his arms and looked over at Livius. "Except for you, recruit. You did a good job."

"Thank you, sir. But my name is Li_"

"Honestly I'm a bit skeptical too, but any information that can be of value to the Legion is important to me." he threw the rest of the gecko into the fire. "But anyway, I must say I was impressed with you, recruit. Normally I don't play to sympathy, but you made it work. Keep it up and I'll put in a good word for you."

Livius brightened up. "You really mean that, sir?"

Vulpes shrugged, polishing his armor with his knuckles. "We would have been arrested if you weren't smart enough to catch on. I say that's worthy of something, at least."

Livius was beaming, but he looked like he was trying to suppress his smile.

"Thank you so much, sir."

Vulpes waved his hand, but then he locked eyes with me. With a strange look in his eye, he turned back to Livius and they devolved into a slew of Latin babble.

"I don't trust her."

"She did save me back in Goodsprings…"

"She's irrational and impulsive. She probably would have gotten us killed more times than she saved you."

"I don't think she's that bad."

"I swear if I wasn't ordered to give her the Mark, I would have abandoned her in the desert a long time ago."

"You do realize I can hear everything you're saying, right?" I crossed my arms and leaned back against a boulder.

Livius bowed his head a bit. "Yeah I forgot to mention, she can speak Latin…"

Vulpes sighed and grabbed his arm, pulling him up. "Come. I'll speak to you in private."

"I already know you're talking about me."

Vulpes didn't respond, but Livius did flash me a sympathetic look. Honestly I didn't really care what they talked about. So when they both ducked behind a boulder to talk, I fell asleep in front of the fire.

The Mark in my pocket felt even heavier.

…

"Inculta" is an anagram for "Lunatic". Just saying.


	14. Chapter 14

When we first started traveling together, it didn't take long for Livius to learn a very important fact about me:

I. Don't. Do. Mornings.

But apparently, someone didn't get that message because guess who was standing above me the next morning?

"Get up, profligate." Vulpes, who was already fully decked in his Legion uniform, roughly nudged my back with his shoe. "I want to leave for camp early."

I forced my eyes open and rolled onto my stomach, groaning a bit. My hand reached out and felt around the dry ground for my glasses. When I finally found them, I slipped them onto my nose, but I didn't get up.

"The sun's not even out." I complained, my face still pressed against the dirt, muffling my words.

"It's risky to stay in one place for too long. Now get up."

I muttered a few curses at him, then forced myself to my feet. My legs wobbled and I let out a long yawn.

"Where's Livius?"

Vulpes paced around me, eyeing me like he was examining a potential slave.

"I sent him to go scout the area; should be back soon." he pointed to the ground by his feet. "Twenty push ups. Now. It will get you your energy back."

"...What?" I reached for my canteen. Before we left the Strip, I filled it with whiskey for moments where I really needed a pick-me-up. This was one of those moments.

"Give that to me." Vulpes held his hand out.

I glanced down at my canteen. "It's just water."

"Give it. Now."

I sighed and handed him the canteen. He unscrewed the lid and cringed.

"You filled your canteen with alcohol?"

"Yes, sometimes I need...what are you doing?!"

He tipped the canteen over and poured the whiskey out onto the ground. When it was emptied, he shook it a bit then tossed it away. "An extra twenty pushups for misusing equipment and for lying to me."

"Hey, I_"

"Fifty for speaking out of turn."

"You can't_"

"Sixty for not listening to me. And an extra ten just to spite you."

"Fuck you."

"Eighty for use of_"

"Mr. Frumentarius, sir?" Livius came running towards us from the mountains.

"Ah, Recruit." Vulpes turned away from me. "Did you find anything?"

He shook his head. "Nothing but rocks and junk for miles, sir."

"Good, good." he looked back at me. "You're off the hook for now; let's get moving."

I gave a sigh of relief and began packing my bags to follow them further into the wasteland. Even though I had no business being up that early, I must say walking through the desert in the early morning was a lot more pleasant. The air was a lot cooler and quiet, no one was shooting at us, really it wasn't until the sun began to peek over the mountains that I remembered that we were in a desert.

The sunlight landed on the side of one of the mountains. Vulpes stopped and frowned.

"What's that?"

At first I had no idea what he was talking about, but then my vision focused and the outline of a hole in the side of the cliff next to us became more obvious.

"It's a hole in a rock?"

He waved his hand dismissively. "I can see that, profligate. But I've walked this path countless times and I've never seen it here before."

I shrugged. "Maybe your eyes are just bad."

Both Livius and Vulpes stared at me and I decided to shut up. For now. At least up until I saw Vulpes make his way to the hole.

"What are you doing? Don't we have a camp to get to?" I began moving towards him. "It's probably just an abandoned mine; there are plenty of those around here."

"I don't like it being this close to the camp." He examined the edge of the cave. "I'm going to investigate it."

Livius and I stood by the brim of the cave and watched him examine the entrance of the cave. He looked up at us, his pale face still visible in the darkness.

"Are you two coming, or are you just going to stand there?"

I moved to follow him, but Livius continued to stand there, petrified, then I finally remembered his claustrophobia.

"Um, maybe Livius should keep watch…"

Vulpes glanced back and forth between the two of us. "A good point, but maybe it would be a better idea for the one not in the Legion uniform to keep watch."

"Uh…" I looked over at Livius. I'm not always the best at reading people, but I knew telling the truth was not the best idea. "You did say this place is close to the Legion camp. If there are any Legionaries walking past here, I don't want to be standing out there alone. I doubt they would give me time to explain anyway."

Vulpes frowned. "All right. Come on, profligate."

Livius silently thanked me and I followed Vulpes down into the mine.

My feet slid against the loose dirt and rubble, but I managed to keep myself from falling. Using the sunlight streaming through the entrance, we slowly made our down. There didn't seem to be anyone else down there, in fact it looked like no one stepped foot in the mine in years.

"See?" I stopped in front of an old shelf and began sorting through the random knick-knacks stored away. "You're just being paranoid."

"No, I think I found something." Vulpes knelt down next to me and pulled a pale blue jacket off of the bottom shelf. "It's a Powder Ganger uniform."

"Yeah, so?"

"If this place is so old, why would there be Powder Gangers this far east?" he sighed and carefully folded the jacket before returning it to the shelf. "I'm going to keep searching. Whether you want to be helpful or not is up to you."

I frowned and leaned against the cave wall; at least it was cooler in here. Dust particles floated through the air and I tried not to sneeze. In the midst of the sounds of Vulpes searching through the shelf, I could have sworn I heard a faint beeping noise.

"Profligate…?" Vulpes took a step backwards. "I recommend running right now."

"Wait, what?"

Before he could answer, he turned around and ran deeper into the cave. Not wanting to take any chances, I ran after him. I barely had time to think when I heard a loud explosion behind me, then the sound of crashing rocks.

I hit the ground, my breath knocked out of me. Nothing felt broken, nothing seemed to hurt. I laid there and waited for the pain to hit me, but it never came. With shaky breaths, I slowly moved my arms around me; the ceiling of the cave was now barely two inches above my head while lying down.

"Vulpes!" I yelled out, my voice was hoarse and I had to take another large breath to yell it out again.

"Over here, profligate!"

I couldn't see anything in the total darkness, but I was able to follow his voice. Using my arms to push myself forwards, I slowly crawled through the small tunnel until I bumped into someone.

"Are you okay?" His voice was about as shaky as mine.

"What did you do?!"

"Apparently this place was rigged to explode. Should have known, considering that we're dealing with Powder Gangers."

"Hey, you were the one who was_"

"Just grab my arm; there should be a way to get out of here."

I hesitated, but then I grabbed his forearm and allowed him to basically drag me through the cave. He probably had better eyesight in the dark than I did in the light.

Eventually, the tunnel we were in opened up into a small corridor. In the darkness, some light seeped in through a small patch of dirt on the far side of the wall.

"Shouldn't be too hard to break through that." he shook his arm out of my hand and stood up, making his way over to the light.

"What if that leads to an NCR camp, or something?" I brushed the dirt off of my knees and followed him.

Vulpes didn't respond, instead he took out his machete and began using it to dig through the patch of dirt. Dust was flying everywhere at this point and I had to cover my mouth and nose with the hem of my shirt just to breathe normally.

The light in the room became increasingly brighter and brighter as he removed more of the dirt, until a small hole was revealed, leading out of the cave. Vulpes put his machete away and stepped out as carefully as he could considering he was in a skirt. I wiped the layer of dust off of my glasses and I stepped out with him.

The sun was all the way up in the sky by the time we got out of the cave and I never thought I would have missed the heat as much as I did. I could now completely understand Livius's claustrophobia.

Wait...Livius…

"Do you think Livius heard that explosion?"

Vulpes frowned. "I'm not entirely sure." he jumped off of the rubble and onto the flat ground below. "Let's go, though. I don't think we'll have any trouble with people hiding out there now.

The side of the mountain was hard to recognize after the explosion, but we eventually found the pile of boulders which was once the entrance to the mine.

"Livius?" I called out, and I felt a sense of panic when I saw the pile of rubble. "Livius!"

Laying face down on the ground was a young man in a Legionary uniform, the lower part of his body was completely covered with boulders.

While I ran over to him, Vulpes took his sweet time walking over. He stared down at Livius, almost in a daze.

I began pulling at one of the boulders that crushed him. "Come on, give me a hand!"

Vulpes snapped out of it and began to help me lift the boulders off of him. My heart raced and I looked back down at Livius. He wasn't moving at all, but I had just a tiny ounce of hope in me that said he was okay, but even I was beginning to lose that.

Eventually we freed Livius from the rubble, but it only got worse from there. His right leg was obviously broken, which was to be expected and could easily be fixed, but his left leg was a different story. The pale skin was purple and veiny, and shards of bone stuck out through the skin. It reminded me of that Powder Ganger's legs back in Nipton.

No...I'm not going to allow that to happen again.

I guess I was in such a stage of shock that I almost didn't notice Vulpes grab his shoulders and attempt to drag him away.

"What are you doing?!" I slapped his hands away. "You can't move him!"

"Well what am I supposed to do?"

I ignored him and pressed my ear against Livius's chest. For a few scary moments, I couldn't hear anything, but then I finally caught on with the faint sound of his heart beating. I let out a small sigh of relief.

"He's alive, just knocked out." I sat back up and looked at his right leg. "This one should be easier to fix. If we can just get it into a splint, it should heal over time. I will probably have to break it back into place first, though."

I reached into my bag and began constructing a pain killer for him, but Vulpes stopped me.

"I take it the recruit already told you about our stance on that practice, right?"

I looked down at the syringe, then back at him.

"Yes, but I need to_"

"I'm not going to allow you to do this." he knelt down next to Livius.

My fingers clenched around the syringe. "Excuse me? He needs actual medical attention. Your disgusting powder won't fix his legs."

Vulpes tried to straighten his leg, which was hard since it was severely bent out of place. Livius groaned a bit, but didn't wake up.

"My lord requires you to speak with him; that is more important. Go down to the camp now, I'll take care of the recruit."

I dropped the syringe on the ground. "Fine." I swung my bag over my shoulder. "Hope you know how to construct a splint."

He sighed. "I've been traveling through the desert since before you were born. I know how to take care of myself without your precious chems."

I had a biting response on the tip of my tongue, but I took one more look at Livius lying there and I let it go. Without saying a word, I adjusted my bag on my shoulder and turned away from them and made my way toward the camp.

"You realize you're going the wrong way, right?" Vulpes called.

I stopped, spun around on my heels, and slowly made my way down the hill to the camp. It wasn't until Livius and Vulpes were out of my sight when I decied to let my anger show in its entirity. I was muttering curses like a sort of twisted mantra, dust clouded around me from the dirt I kicked up, and my knuckles were bruised and raw from the boulders I had to stop and slam my fist into. I was an immature child, but I couldn't help it.

It wasn't until I saw the first glimpses of the Legion camp that a thought suddenly occured to me:

What if this was all a trap?

The idea did worry me, but I honestly didn't care at that point. I reached into my pocket and gripped the Mark until I felt it imprint into the skin of my palm.

The camp was located at the bank of the river, all of the buildings were plain white shacks that were nicer than anything I saw in the wasteland, but not as nice as anything I saw in Vegas.

I stopped in front of the restrooms and just when I was wondering why the Legion had a women's restroom, one of the Legionaries ran over to me.

"Halt!" he yelled. "What brings you here, outsider?!"

I practically shoved the Mark into his face. "I'm here on business."

"You...you carry the Mark of Caesar…" he stared at me in disbelief. "We've never had an outsider in the Fort in so long, especially a woman."

"Hey, I'm just as surprised as you."

"Cursor Lucullus is waiting for you by the docks to take you to the Fort." his eyes narrowed. "Don't misuse this privilege, outsider."

I just waved dismissively and walked over to the dock, making a point to keep the Mark out so everyone else knew I was supposed to be here. I stepped onto the rickety wood of the dock and it immediately hit me how unstable this felt. The blanks of wood were distorted from years of exposure to water and they creaked when I put my weight on them, but I forced myself to keep going. Although, it would have been amusing if the first outsider invited to meet with Caesar crashed through the docks.

A young man in a Legionary uniform stood at the end of the dock, looking surprisingly neat for someone who spends their entire life outside by a river. He did smell like fish and dirty river water, though.

"Ave, are you ready to travel to the Fort?"

I looked over my shoulder at the mountains where I left Livius and Vulpes. Hopefully they would have another way to get back.

"Yeah, I think I'm ready."

"The trip will take a few hours, hopefully you brought a book or something."

…

The boat ride to the Fort was one of the most awkward experiences of my life. Mostly we sat in silence, only to be broken by Lucullus making the occasional remark about the weather. Sometimes I would try to start a conversation.

"So why does Caesar want to talk to me?" I stared down at my reflection in the murky water.

"I do not know for certain. All I know is that there is something he needs to speak with you about."

"Why would he want to speak with a woman, though?"

"Women are physically and intellectually inferior to men. Their role is to bear children and ensure the survival of our species."

The conversation didn't last long.

Eventually the boat docked at the edge of the river. I considered tipping Lucullus for taking me, but I decided not to and just silently thanked him. He nodded me and lead me to the entrance of the Fort. I must say, as strange as it will sound, that it felt sort of nice to travel with a Legionary next to me-sort of familiar. Of course while Livius was a few inches taller than me and Vulpes and I were roughly the same height, Lucullus towered over me. I sort of hated him for that.

My entire body felt like it was still rocking back and forth on the river as I walked over to the huge wooden gate positioned by the river. Before I could politely knock, the gate slowly creaked open. I was not used to seeing so many Legionaries in one place. Some were marching up the rickety wooden steps that wound up the hill like a snake, some were sharpening their machetes, polishing their armor, or training. After finally seeing them in their "natural habitat" I don't know why they say they emulate the Romans. Honestly they seemed more like the spartans.

Before I could go any further, one Legionary stopped me in my path.

"Halt!"

I stopped. So I guess they're Roman-Spartan-Germans now, or something.

"Before entering the Fort, all outsiders must hand over all of their weapons."

I grumbled and just tossed him my bag; I was far too tired to actually sort through it. I caved in and handed over my spiked knuckles. After all, they didn't do me much good when I held onto them at the Tops.

The Legionary let me pass but instead of marching up the hill to Caesar's tent, I explored a bit more of the Fort. I tried averting my eyes from the slaves or the prisoners who were tied to crosses. Near the outer wall, a Legionary stood there and seemed to be training a group of dogs. I tried to walk past him, but he locked eyes with me.

"Outsiders are a rare sight at the Fort." He had a sort of mad gleam in his eye and he sounded like he has psycho for blood. "Step carefully around here and you just might leave alive."

"The Legion should have hired you as the greeter." I leaned against the wall and looked at the dogs. "Nice dogs."

I never liked dogs, but apparently that didn't come across because the gleam in his eye only got brighter.

"I know, right?" he scratched one of the older-looking dogs behind its ear. "This one's Lupa. She's the mother of our best dogs and though she's getting old, she's still a tough old bitch. Aren't you, Lupa?"

Lupa didn't respond.

I eyed the dogs carefully. "So you're like the dog trainer, or something…?"

He stopped petting the dogs. "I'm Antony, master of the hounds. And you, outsider?"

"Celeste."

"You should go, outsider. I believe my lord wished to speak to you."

I was going to ask him why Legionaries seemed to have an issue with calling people by their actual names, instead opting for things like "Degenerate", "Profligate", "Outsider", or "Amicus", but I really didn't like the way Lupa was looking at me. I wished the crazy dog man a nice day and headed up the hill to the tent.

The deeper I stepped into the Legion Fort, the more awkward I felt; maybe the nickname "Outsider" fit more than I thought. It wasn't just that I was probably the only one wearing pants for miles around, but just the overall sense of feeling like I didn't belong. Whatever I felt back at the Strip, that was nothing compared to this.

Some Legionary guards eyed me carefully as I walked into the tent and I made a point to hold my hands up to show I wasn't going to lash out. A row of Legionaries and dogs stood at the far side of the tent, one of them being the head of the Frumentarii himself.

"Vulpes." How did he get here so fast. "How's Livius? Is he okay?"

He kept his expression stoic and unwavering (I hated it when he did that). "Speak with my Lord first. Then we'll talk."

I took a step back and stared at the man seated on the throne beside him. Honestly he can't blame me for not noticing him. After all of the hype over Caesar that I got from both Livius and everyone else, this was strangely underwhelming. I don't know what I was expecting, but I surely didn't expect the older, bald gentleman seated at the throne before me. He looked less like the leader of the Legion and more like my uncle.

If he was offended that I did not acknowledge him first, he didn't show it. In fact, he almost seemed amused.

"So I finally get to meet the person who accomplished so much in so little time."

"Uh…" I looked over my shoulder. "Listen, I don't really know w_"

"My question is: are you ready to get started?"

Before I could respond, two Legionary guards stood right behind me and another set blocked off the exit; I was completely trapped.

And looking at Caesar again, I finally understood why people feared the man himself.


End file.
